Where Friend Rhymes With End
by Ethenia
Summary: Drifting on the border between dreams and the waking world a fay has come to Hogwards. Adjusting to the world of humans is not easy, but when a war lurks around the corner new allies are needed. Set in marauder era.
1. Prologue

_Just give it a go and see if you like it ^^_

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><p><strong><em>Prologue<em>**

_Where new roads are __traveled_

The night air was cool, and Val's breath had formed fog to cover up the view outside their carriage. She wiped most of it away with her slew and looked out in to the night. The dying moon was hanging low in the sky over long and sharp silhouettes of the castle towers. Only few small windows were illuminating the night at the distance with their foreign warm yellow glow. The star lit sky behind the looming building looked so much more inviting than the castle ever would, she thought while stealing a glance of her father sitting on the opposite seat deep in thought.

"What is it Val?" her father asked after noticing a pair of indigo eyes staring at him in the dark.

"Tell me again, why I have to do this." she asked while trying hard not to sound like she was whining like an impudent child.

"It's not safe at home anymore. Dumbledore gave me his word that as long as you are within the walls of Hogwards, he would keep you safe. Right now, it's a best bet I have, to keep you alive." the man sighed sounding tired through to his bones.

Valerian didn't say anything, instead opting to look out of the window at the ominous shadow of the castle she would be spending the rest of her year in. _Humans_, this all had started because of them, and now she was send off to live amongst them. Just because their numbers were dwindling by the hands of the very same creatures they were now turning to for help. For her, it just didn't make any sense at all, but no one argued with her father. It was something you just simply didn't do, so here she was, sitting silently with him in a carriage pulled by a pair of thestrals towards a place she wanted nothing to do with.

"I know you don't trust humans, and I don't blame you. If it were any other man I would not have heard a word of it, but I trust Dumbledore. I have known the man sense he was just a boy, and he is a good man. Not like the rest of the lot." trying to reason with his daughter for what seemed like a hundredth time, Launfal found himself becoming almost desperate.

"Just do this one thing for me, will you little sparrow? I know you miss your mother, but now is not the time to act out. In due time, we will make sure that the sons of men get what they deserve, but for now, we have to lay low. The people at the castle know what we are, but you should probably try to appear as human as you can. That way you won't attract so much attention and it will be easier for you." All the response he got from his daughter with his little speech was a faint glimmering movement of her wings and a quick glance of those deep blue eyes that were so like her mother that it made shivers travel down his spine.

At the impossibly high doors of the school, two people were waiting patiently as the carriage neared the castle. One of them, the taller one of the two, was smiling to himself like there was not a care in the world while the other one was showing different stages of disdain.

The carriage stopped right in front of them and the door opened ever so slowly. Out stepped a young petite woman with silvery white hair flowing down her back, glowing in the moonlight. Her clothes were different shades of grey and blue, and attached to here back were a pair of wings, that were a curious mixture that of a bird and a butterfly. They were shimmering softly in the darkness, the girl looking like she would fly off at any second never coming back. Her facial expression showing clearly, that she wasn't happy with the situation she had found herself in.

After the girl out came sir. Launfal Nightshade. The man was a sight as much as ever, standing tall like only a man sure of his position could. His hair and wings matched the ones of her daughter, and in his golden eyes burned the sense of authority, when he strode up the stairs to greet their welcome party.

"Albus, its good to see you again." his voice was deep and melodious as he shook the headmasters hand firmly.

"- and Mrs. McGonagall." he greeted the strict looking woman with a nod of his head.

"Welcome to my school Launfal, it's so nice that you could come. Let's not stand here in the doorway, and instead go to my office for a talk." professor Dumbledore said with an inviting wave of his hand towards the marble stairs of the entrance hall. The three adults were few steps in to the school before Launfal noticed that Val was not following them.

"Come on Valerian, we don't have all night to stand mindlessly around." he said impatiently to his daughter who was still standing in front of the carriage not making a move.

"But dad, Kayn won't come out!" she sounded rather frustrated, looking at the open door she had emerged herself just moments ago, brow furrowed and full lips pouting the way her father found he could never say no to.

"She will follow you once she realises that you are going out of her sight otherwise. Now come on." his voice much gentler of the sight of his daughters pouting face.

With an annoyed huff and a flap of her wings Valerian followed after her father and the two professors. Soon after the young fey had disappeared inside, a great white lynx stepped warily out of the carriage door sniffing the late autumn air before hurrying after her.

Upstairs, with a good view down to the entrance hall, four friends were hiding under a magical cape.

"Did you see that?" one of them asked with a stunned whisper.

"Is that what I think it was?" other followed right after.

"But what the hell would a fay do inside Hogwards?" the third wondered with a tired voice. The fourth one of the boys, the smallest one, dared not to utter a word. Instead he was thinking about the big cat in silent terror. Hoping that they would not cross paths while he was in his animal form, or else his end would not be a pretty one.


	2. Chapter 1

**I guess I should say, that I'm not J.K Rowling and all her characters an places belong to her. I only own my OCs :) I would really love some feedback if you are reading this, so give me some love will you?**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

_Where the feeling of being lost grows strong_

Professor Dumbledore's office was certainly something like Valerian had never seen before. High on the walls, numerous portraits were hanging, all staring at her and her father with varying expressions of curiosity and malice. All around the room scattered on every surface different kind of machines were twirling and whirling, making little noises and puffing smoke of every imaginable colour every now and then. This was all well and wondrous, but the thing that captured her attention and held it, was the beautiful big bird watching her with bright black eyes full of understanding and wit.

Glancing at her father and the others, assuring herself that they were engaged in conversation and not paying her any mind, she slowly approached the phoenix. The lynx had noticed the bird too, and her ears were perked up attentively, golden eyes staring hungrily at the red and gold coloured creature. Signalling to her furry companion not to follow her, Valerian got closer to the animal humming softly at the same time to show, that she was not a threat of any kind.

"You are a beautiful thing to look at now aren't you" she cooed to it after getting close enough to carefully pet its head with one finger. The phoenix singed her as an answer and pressed its elegant head against her hand, shutting its eyes and enjoying the attention it was getting.

Off in her own little world, busy admiring the beautiful bird in front of her, Val didn't notice, that the others had stopped talking and were looking at her rather expectantly. All her father had done lately was talk and talk and then probably talk even more, so it was unusual for them to be done so fast. It wasn't easy to arrange something like a fay attending to human school and a lot of preparations had been made beforehand.

"Val." Her father cleared his throat a bit uncomfortably at her behaviour.

"We have sorted out everything there is for now, so if you have something to say before I take my leave, now would be the time." he said.

"Can I come with you?" Val asked, knowing already what his answer would be, but still she couldn't resist the temptation to try one last time, just in case.

"Valerian we have discussed this already a hundred times." Launfal was getting impatient with her and it showed on his face. It was never a good thing to upset her father, who was known to be a strong headed and quick-tempered man. You never knew what would happen, if he got angry enough. Even the little things could sometimes set him off, and lately, they had all been kind of on the edge.

"I'm sorry father I didn't mean to upset you..." she hurriedly said regret thick in her voice, watching her father from under her eyelashes, with an adorable pout. Yes, she knew exactly how to use that to her advantage at times like these.

"It's just that I'm going to miss you and Vidar so much. " After seeing Launfal's expression softening instantly at her little act, Val smiled in relief and came over to give her father a goodbye hug and a small peck on the cheek.

"Kayn will look after me don't worry." she assured him, stepping back to give the adults some more room to say their parting words. Scratching her cat around its soft, silky ears she watched as her father gave her one last apologetic smile and then disappeared through the door.

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><p>Dumbledore watched carefully at Valerians expressions as her father took his leave from his office, and saw how the beautiful warm smile gracing her lips at her fathers presence disappeared the second the door clicked shut behind him. What was left was a mask, almost completely void of all emotion, those indigo blue eyes that were sparkling just moments ago, were now dark and wary. The difference was so striking, that it almost didn't even feel like the same person. It was certainly something to be concerned over, and he would have to keep close tabs on the girl, at least for the first couple of weeks.<p>

"Come on now Miss Nightshade, its time we get you settled." he exclaimed scratching the bridge of his big nose, deciding that now was not the time for a heart to heart chat with his new pupil.

"This bright woman here is our Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, she will be taking you to meet your head of the house, and together they will have you settled in your dorms in no time. I'm sure you were explained about the customs of our school before, when you were sorted, so I'm not going to keep you up any longer at this hour. If you have any questions at all, you can address any of your teachers or the head of your house.

We thought it best to give you some time to rest tomorrow, so you will be joining the other students at diner. Minerva here has your schedule and your things are already waiting at you in your room." When he believed he had covered all the necessary details for the time being, he gave a nod to the woman at his side, smiled encouragingly to the young fay in his office and turned to fiddle with some parchments on his table signalling that the conversation was over for now.

Professor McGonagall ushered the girl quickly out of the office to the stone stairs, and led the way through the silent castle. All the while thinking, if Albus really knew what he was getting all of them into this time. She didn't really agree that the school was a proper place for one of the _sidhe_. Such a thing knew only trouble.

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><p>After what seemed like ages, but in reality was no more than one hour, Valerian was finally in her new room lying on her back on top of the bedspread, staring intently at the ceiling, not really seeing anything at all. Kayn was lying partially on her legs, feeling soft, warm and familiar. She was so glad that father had insisted that the lynx would come with her. It was the only familiar thing in this strange place, and it was comforting to know, that she had at least one friend here to keep her company.<p>

Even thou normally wild animals were not allowed in the school, _sidhe_ familiars weren't really like other animals. Kayn was a good example to that rule; she did look like a lynx at first sight, but had been around the fay so long, that their magic had had time to make an effect on her. She was a lot bigger than a normal lynx would have been, and her fur was almost completely white, with only faint silver grey makings. Her frame was somewhat more slender, more agile and her eyes were ice blue and sparkling with intent. Looking at her, it was almost impossible to picture the small, ordinary cub she had once been.

Listening to the soft purr, that slowly filled the dark room, it didn't take long at all, for her to drift of to sleep. She slept restlessly, dashing and turning every few minutes. Whimpering quietly and clutching the soft fur of her companion securely in her tiny hands. It wasn't the first time when in her sleep her mind was filled with images of her mother, and it was not the first time either, when she woke up cowered in cold sweat, panting and shivering in terror, dried tears staining her cheeks.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Where one wishes to not be seen_

When Valerian finally woke up, it was already afternoon and the sun was shining through the class windows creating long golden patterns around the room. At night she had been too tired to really pay attention to her surroundings, but now she took the time to familiarise herself with the room she was now supposed to be calling her own.

It was not as big as the one she had back home and it was darker too. In her eyes, the whole room looked weird and foreign. Everything seemed so rough around the edges; all the furniture was so _heavy, _that she was unable to move it around using muscle strength alone. _Figures, humans are so crude creatures after all_, she thought while standing in the middle of the small space. Kayn was sending odd looks at her direction from the bed while she was whisking her wings whit short sharp movements while thinking about the situation at hand.

There was a reason why she was given her own room instead of just putting her in with the other girls. She was one of the fey, and a court fey at that, and when one of her kind habited some place long enough, things would get rather interesting. They were highly magical creatures after all, and magic had a habit of gathering other magic around it self, kind of like planets and gravity, so in a month's time the room would be sizzling with magical energy and that would be a time for her to do some redecorating. But for now, the things already there would have to do. At least there wasn't any iron there anymore sense all of it had been removed before she moved in.

Sighing deeply Val settled to unpacking some of her belongings and then proceeded to stare grudgingly at her new school robes that were laid on her bed. They supposedly looked more or less the same other students were wearing, but hers were made of the same fabric all her other clothes were made of. That way they wouldn't be too heavy for her to move around in, and she would probably be able to fly in them too, should she ever try. They were not very practical for that purpose, and even if they were, her dad had advised her to appear as human as possible witch meant no flying around. _At least not during the daylight hours_, she added to herself pulling the offensive clothing over her head and stepping in front off the mirror to inspect her reflection.

The clothes did make their job, even thou they were ugly as hell, they made her more human looking already. The blue on her new robes almost matched the colour of her eyes, and her slender figure almost disappeared under all that fabric. She would have to change her form somewhat to hide her more inhuman features, but decided to leave her hair and eyes mostly untouched. Call it vanity if you may, but she was rather proud of her soft silky curls that cascaded down her back like a silvery waterfall.

When she was done with humanising her appearance she send one last scrutinizing look at her reflection before setting some charms on her book bag to be actually able to carry the things around, and after telling Kayn repeatedly, that she was to wait in her room and not to follow her around inside the castle, she was off to her first dinner at her new school.

-XXX-

It wasn't all that hard to figure out witch table she was supposed to sit. While there was only four to choose from, they were also covered with the colours of each student group. _Houses_, Val reminded herself while heading towards the one with blue and bronze colours all over it. They were called houses, and hers was called Ravenclaw. _What a silly name_, she mused while trying to figure out her place at the long table.

Most of the people in the hall were not paying much attention past their full plates and friends around them. But the longer Valerian continued to stand there undecided, the more eyes she could feel burning holes to her petite frame, so after spotting a delicate silvery box near the other end of the table she hurried towards it and sat down between two chatting groups of students.

_Don't __pay attention to me. _She chanted as hard as she could biting her lip so vigorously that she almost drew some blood. After what felt like a really long time, she felt that the curious eyes drilling in to her subsided gradually. With a sight of relief she gripped the small silver key hanging around her neck in a long chain and carefully opened the box peaking inside.

Inside the box were few different kinds of food she usually liked to eat at home. Fay food was not exactly healthy for humans, so the school wanted to play it safe, hence the locked box and the key. Smiling faintly to herself Val gripped some summer wine and a piece of soft white cake with flower petals and nuts baked inside it, eating while riffling through one of the books she had brought with her to the castle.

"Excuse me." someone was talking rather loudly somewhere near her. That was another thing she would have to remember to complain to Vidar when writing a letter to him. This place was so _noisy_ that it was almost impossible to even hear your own thoughts.

"_Excuse_ me." came again, this time even more loudly than the last. This time Val raised her head from the book she was reading and glanced around to see who was making so much noise. On the other side of the table, where there was an empty seat across from her, was a boy looking directly at her with a pair of muddy green eyes.

"Me?" Val asked a bit surprised, that someone was already talking to her, it hasn't even been ten minutes, she thought. The boy made a double take at the sound of her voice, witch caused Valerian to frown slightly wondering whether or not she did something wrong at her quest at appearing human.

"Yeah, you are the new exchange student right?" The boy asked while seating himself in front of her without waiting her answer. _Well, it was king of obvious whet you thought about it_, she thought with a nod of her head, waiting that the boy would get to his point.

"I'm the head boy of our house. My name is John Hallow, and Professor Flitwick requested that I make sure you adjust here without any problems." the boy, _John _smiled extending a hand to her.

"Valerian Nightshade, but I go by Val." she said quietly while taking the offered hand and shaking it briefly before letting go.

"So I hear that you are one of the fey, is that correct?" John was asking while he obviously knew the answer already. Other students were sending curious looks at their direction and were trying to look like they weren't listening in, while they were doing exactly just that. Val was feeling rather awkward as she was nodding again and humming something that sounded somewhat agreeing.

"Wow, I have never seen a fay before." the boy was going on and on. _Did other humans talk this much?_ Valerian wondered while picking absentmindedly at what was left of her dinner.

"How come you look so much like us, is it a glamour? I have read about those, you have to show me sometime, I bet it's really interesting to watch… "And so on. Val noticed pretty soon, that all she really had to do, was nod or shake her head every once in a while, while John did most of the talking. Silently she added this to her ever growing list of things to complain to Vidar in her first letter to home.

-XXX-

It was dinner time, and the Marauders were sitting in their usual seats down at the Gryffindor table. Peter was focusing all his attention at shovelling as much food in to his mouth as he could muster, while Sirius and James were planning yet again some prank heads together over their plates and Remus… well he was Remus so what could you expect? He was sitting his nose glued in to yet another book, eating without even looking at his plate.

Suddenly the amount of nose in the Great Hall considerably dropped, and after briefly glancing at the doors to see what had caused it, Sirius elbowed his best friend hard on the ribs to get his attention.

"Ow! What was that for?" James asked, rubbing the now sore spot at his side, but fell silent after Sirius shot him a meaningful look and nodded towards the double doors. And sure enough, there stood the girl they all had seen last night, glad in ravenclaw robes from head to toe. Looking as lost as a little kitten stuck in a rainstorm, or so it appeared to Sirius at least.

"She seems different somehow." noted James still rubbing at his sore ribs. At his words, Remus finally pulled his eyes out off his book and looked at the doors.

"Well you would look different too, if one day you would have wings on your back and the next day they would be gone. Sometimes I am rather amazed at your observational skills James." Moony's vocal stab was delivered at his usual quiet and steady tone; witch caused Sirius to snicker at the cost of his friend.

"Haa haa Moony, be a comedian why don't you? You are clearly heading towards the wrong kind of profession with that always so solemn scholar thing you have going on. Make a career as a stage comedian and leave being serious to Sirius." James was not all that happy with his friends' sense of humour at the moment.

"You now that the _sidhe _are able to shape shift." Sirius said after regaining some of his composure, making the best Moony impression he could.

"Umm, Padfoot? You realise that we have all read about it right? We had to do that paper about the fay folk for DADA last week." keeping a straight face proved to be difficult, when after James's words, Sirius was at loss of what to say and ended up looking like a fish on dry land, moth opening and closing with nothing coming out.

"Of course I know we had that essay last week, it just wasn't realistic for me to assume that you would have actually done it you git!" He eventually said, face all moody and grumpy.

"You spend more time ogling at Lily's arse, than paying attention to your studies."

"Aww Sirius, look at you. You already sound like our dear Moony!" James exclaimed grinning from ear to ear.

"No he doesn't. I almost never say "arse"" Remus corrected from behind his book.

"No you say _buttocks _or _behind_" barked Sirius, already back to his normal misbehaving self.

"You know what boys." he said after a while, looking as the head boy of the ravenclaws made his way over to the fay sitting alone, not really paying attention to anyone around her.

"I think this could become an interesting year after all."

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><p><em>If I get even one review from you, I promise to draw a nice picture about the story for you :) And I don't completely suck at drawing either. (or at least I hope so) Or I could always do some owls, I bet you guys like them anyway.<em>


	4. Chapter 3

_See? Making me happy really pays off! I got my first review and was so happy about it that I decided to post this early. The next chapter will probably take a bit more time, sense the ones already here were just waiting to be posted when I added the story here. _

_Oh! And I promised you a picture didn't I? I put the link to my profile page sense the one here didn't really work._

_ (I know its a address monster, but its a link to a picture in my blog so don't worry. ) I know you really wanted to see Sirius and I actually made one of him also but didn't like it, so you will have to wait for it for a while longer ^^. Please make me happy again and review! I would really like to know what you think._

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

_Where a first taste of the future feels bitter_

The next morning Valerian was sitting at breakfast, sipping her herbal tea and inspecting her schedule for the day. First thing in the morning she would have Charms with their house head professor Flitwick. He had actually been rather kind to her on the night of her arrival. It was nice to have at least one teacher who wasn't completely human either. It made her feel less alone, less different. The rest of her schedule was somewhat altered from the ones the others had, or so she had been told. Her noon was completely empty, and late afternoon were Herbology, Potions and Astronomy in the evening. Apparently her potions professor had kindly agreed to give her private lessons upstairs after classes, sense the classroom it was normally held, was underground and full of iron. Even the thought of it made her shudder in disgust.

On the other days, she would also have Defense against the Dark Arts, Ancient Studies and some Art lessons. It didn't sound all that bad, and it would be interesting to see what humans were teaching to their offspring. And sense she wasn't here to become a full member of the wizarding community; she wouldn't have to worry about the exams or anything like that. Her father couldn't care less of her marks at some human school as long as she did well in her other studies back at home.

After stuffing her schedule back to her bag, she drank what was left of her tea with one gulp and headed off to find the first classroom she would enter in her entire life. Not really knowing what to expect. Fortunately it wasn't hard to find, partially thanks to Johns thorough instructions last night. She had been somewhat relieved, after he had told her that he would not be attending to the class with her. Listening to that endless chatter had exhausted her completely last night. After taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, she entered the first of many classes ahead of her.

-XXX-

Sirius was sitting in the back of the classroom, leaning casually back in his seat and yawning like there was no tomorrow. James was sitting next to him, classes crookedly on his nose and looking equally tired. They had been up most of the night last nigh, preparing a prank for Filch. Now all they had to do was wait for the show. The room was full of ravenclaws impatiently waiting for the lesson to start. It was annoying, but not at all at the same level as the slytherins, witch they had DADA with. The good side of the situation was that the back of the classroom was almost empty except for the two of them and Remus, who was sitting next to them, buried behind the book he had been reading yesterday.

Flitwick was already starting the first lesson for the day, when the door behind them opened and someone entered the room silently. It was the girl, the fay, with an uncertain expression passing through her face. She carefully seated herself on the other side of Remus, few seats a way of the boys. Looking around, it seemed that nobody even noticed her coming in. Even the teacher didn't say anything at all, despite of her being late for the class.

"Did you see that?" Sirius whispered to his friends, nodding his head towards the girl.

"What?" came a sleepy answer from James that sounded more like a yawn than a real word.

"She came late, and nobody said anything." he whispered leaning towards the other two in order to not be overheard by the other students.

"Don't you think its weird, how she sort of just appeared out of thin air, without any introductions or anything of the sort? I mean, why is she even here? I have never heard from any other _sidhe_ studying here, have you?" It was clear, that this was really bugging Sirius. Nothing itched like an unsolved enigma, and the nameless girl two seats across from them, to him was exactly that.

"I guess…" started Remus thoughtfully, "-that when you think about it, it kind of makes sense. Avoiding attention I mean. She isn't human after all, and such a thing can cause a lot of problems when everyone eventually finds out. This way, if she keeps low profile as long as she can, it will probably take some time for the word to spread to everyone. Now she will already have some footing here when that time comes." It wasn't a surprise, that it was Moony who understood this side of the situation so easily. He had some first hand experience of the subject after all.

"That _does_ make sense, but it doesn't really cover the part why she is here in the first place." Sirius was pulling at the roots of his black hair frustrated. James seemed to be the only one not taking apart on the conversation. Opting instead to ogle a certain redhead few rows in front of them, who was listening intently at the teacher scribbling notes at an enthusiastic pace.

"Well, I think that eventually we will also know the answer to that question. This is Hogwards; nothing really stays a secret for long in here." Remus said after a pause.

"_Almost _nothing that is." barked Sirius grinning roguishly and leaned his chair back against the wall behind them. Gray eyes examining the puzzle he had taken upon himself to solve, who was now torturing her lover lip between her teeth, eyes unfocused. She hadn't even bothered to take out her books and was just sitting there with an empty expression on her eerily beautiful face while the lesson dragged on.

Once he was finished with his lecture about different kinds of shied charms and their different uses, Professor Flitwick started to divide the class in pairs for the practical part of the lesson.

"Now what I want you to do, is taking turns at creating different shields and then testing them with your partner. Bear in mind, that this is not a duelling class, so I don't want to see you doing any funny business." He looked meaningfully at the marauders while saying this.

While students were standing up and chatting with their partners, starting the exercise, Flitwick suddenly appeared in front of the fay.

"You can pair up with Mr Loopin here Miss Nightshade. Don't worry, he is a good student and will be able to help you out should you ever need it." he said introducing the two. Remus was smiling kindly at her, offering his hand for a shake.

"Hi, my name is Remus, and these two goofballs are my friends James and Sirius." his voice apprehensive and friendly, like he was trying to tame a hippogriff or something, while the girl took his hand.

"I'm Valerian, but you can call me Val." she said, glancing at the two other boys before fixing her intensive dark blue eyes back at Remus.

"So how are we going to do this?" she asked, when for a moment, nothing really happened. The boys were all just standing there staring at here stupefied.

It was a first time any of them had heard a voice like that. It was melodic, like wind chimes and blackbirds singing, soft and low. You could easily imagine sirens having a voce like that. It glided inside your ears and made you all fuzzy and tingling inside. Apparently Val had forgotten to alter her other attributes along with her looks. Remus was the first to recover from his shock, shaking his head a little to clear it.

"Well you will need your wand for one thing." he said after noticing that her hands were empty. Val looked down at her hands and then the wand the boy was holding securely in his.

"Umm… I don't really have one. "she answered tilting her head slightly, staring at him with a remotely apprehensive expression on her face.

"Oh?" was his intelligent answer, and nothing else came up to his mind even as he tried hard to think of something to say.

"I don't actually _need_ one either, so what's the second thing?" she eventually continued when the silence had went on for too long and no one else said anything.

"We could start by me making the shield first, and you testing it for few times before shifting places if that's all right?" Remus suggested scratching the back of his skull frowning slightly. He didn't really know how to deal with this girl. Her face was a hard one to read, holding a vacant expression firmly in place, other emotions just passing shadows around her eyes and mouth every now and then. She didn't really feel like she was thinking alike with other people he was used to, and that confused him even more.

They did exactly what Remus had suggested, and after he had his shield up he gave her a nod to sign that it was her turn. She lifted her other hand slightly, contemplated for a minute what kind of spell to use and then flicked her slender wrist with a quick movement. They all saw a flashing blue light, that was reflected from Remus' shield, and with a slight frown Val tried again. This time the light was brighter and it let out a cracking sound when it hit the shield. The third spell broke the shield and pushed him backwards lights flashing in his eyes, ears ringing and skin prickling. His senses were full of the effects of the spell for a while, and evaporated after that. He had braised himself for something worse to happen, but nothing did.

"It was a good shied charm." Val admitted when Remus' eyes focused on her again. Taking one step away from him, she shut her eyes for a split second and let out a low humming sound. Opening her deep indigo eyes she coked one eyebrow at him, challenging him to break the charm she had created. To say that Remus felt nervous would be an understatement. The girl in front of him appeared to be so fragile, so tiny with nothing visible there to protect her, that it felt wrong to throw a hex at her. Deciding to start with a simple silent tickling spell he aimed his wand at her.

-XXX-

The lunch time had arrived, and Remus sat in his chair hunched over his plate almost visible black clouds hanging above his head.

"Come on Moony, It wasn't that bad!" James tried yet again to cheer up his pouty friend. It was the same conversation that had been going on all through potions class. He was getting frustrated with Remus' the low spirits while he was almost pouncing on his seat, anxious to get back upstairs to see, if Flinch had found their little surprise yet.

"No Prongs admit it, it was. That tiny sprite totally beat his charms. It was rather hilarious really." barked Sirius with an amused grin, drumming the edge of the table with his fingers with fast uneven pace, that made all the others around him feel restless. Apparently James was not the only one waiting to get to see the results of their nightly adventures.

"I didn't know that fay magic could be that strong." he added a bit more thoughtfully scratching his chin, looking very much like the dog he was.

"What happened?" asked Peter, confused by his friends' behaviour.

"Oh right, you weren't there… well Moony here had to pair up with the fay in our charms class. We had to do this practise with shields and she totally broke every one that Remus was able to cast, yet he didn't get a single hex to hit her!" Sirius hurried to explain. He was quite thrilled that even Remus didn't shine in all of his classes in spite of clearly being the smartest one of the four.

"Oh?" was all Peter said. His mind was back thinking about the awfully big cat he had seen with the girl and he could feel a lump forming in his throat.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_Where the days are endless_

Valerian woke up to the wet feeling of Kayn liking her face furiously with her rough tongue.

"All right all right I'm up!" yelling at it while trying to push the big animal off of her, she wondered how many times she would have to wake up like this, before Kayn would learn that it was not a cub anymore. The habit had long gone ceased to be cute.

"Please?" she cried with an exasperated sigh and finally the furry alarm clock of a cat shifted away from her with a self pleased expression on its furry face.

It was late afternoon. The sun was shining brightly through the windows, making the dust dance like golden freckles in the air. Val had gone back to her room straight from charms and fallen to sleep immediately when her head had hit the pillow. She wasn't used to being up in the middle of the day and already the different rhythm of life in the castle had taken its toll. It was yet another aspect of this arrangement her father had overlooked when he decided to send her here. She understood, that after everything that happened few months back, concentrating to everyday matters yet alone politics was hard for him. But understanding things didn't make them any easier for her to bear.

She was a nocturnal being by essence, and pulling herself up and picking up her schoolbag took every ounce of determination she could muster. Yawning so hard se thought her jaw would dislocate, Val travelled down the stairs to the common room witch was almost empty at this time of the day. The star covered ceiling and the rich blue tones of the room felt almost familiar, while she crossed the wide cluttered space all the while stretching her body like a cat. At least she got to spend some time outside, she thought whilst wondering where the Herbology class would be held.

While travelling down the castle corridors, still feeling like she was half a sleep, she heard the noise a lot sooner that se saw what caused it. Loud squeaks follower right after another. There was a lot of laughter, some profanities and a little bit of angry meowing too. When she rounded the next corner she saw a punch of students laughing at an odd looking man who was furiously beating the floor with a battered broom. On the floor around his feet (and everywhere else in this part of the corridor in fact) was a herd of blue bubble mice scrambling around. Every time the broom squished one of them, it let out a loud ear piercing squeak before popping and five more appeared out of thin air. Judging by the amount of the mice, this had been going on for some time now.

"Oh it's so nice to see Flinch get what he deserves!" a girl standing next to her said. She was glad in the same ravenclaw blue and bronze as Valerian was, and her hair was so dark brown that it looked almost black, and it fell down her back in messy curls. Her green eyes were spotted with rich golden tones and wore a friendly expression while looking at Val, as if waiting for her to say something.

"Who do you think did this?" Valerian asked, when nothing else came to her mind, and it was something that she had been wondering for a while now.

"The Marauders of course!" the girl laughed, amused by her question for some reason.

"Who?" she asked, even more confused than before.

"Oh really, where have you been hiding lately, under a rock?" the other one answered rolling her green eyes at her, like she was deliberately trying to be slow.

"Now that I think of it, I don't remember seeing you around here before. What are you, a sixth year?" She asked examining her from head to toe.

"There is something definitely odd about you." she finally decided after a through inspection.

"I actually arrived here only few days a go. I guess you could say that I'm an exchange student." Val answered a bit timidly. She wasn't sure what to make of the strange girl whose moods seemed to change on a whim every few seconds. It was enough to give anyone a whip flash on Val's opinion.

"What on earth is happening here!" an angry scream came from the other end of the corridor.

"Shit. It's McGonagall. Let's go before we get in to trouble." and suddenly Valerian found herself being dragged by hand through the castle at an amazing speed. They flew down shortcuts and hidden passageways bumping in to other people while making sharp turns here and there.

"Wait! Why are you running? We haven't even done anything wrong!" she finally got tired of being dragged around and yanked her arm free.

"I know. Its just fun, the running I mean." The girl laughed while slightly out of breath. Her hair, that had been messy before, was now wildly sticking to every direction you could think of and her cheeks were glowing bright pink.

"I'm Kia by the way. What's your name?" It was that inspecting stare again, Val noted while taking the hand that was offered to her.

"I'm Valerian." she answered, not too keen on letting out any more information than absolutely necessary. Val didn't really like the way this human was so unpredictable, it made her feel nervous and flinchy. Oh who was she trying to kid? She didn't really like humans, period.

"What class do you have next? I can walk you there if you like." Kia had already started to walk down the corridor while she said this.

"Herbology." Val answered, not moving from her spot, undecided whether to follow or not.

"Me too! Hey, are you coming or what?" she turned back to look at her frowning impatiently.

Letting out a deep breath and steeling her nerves Valerian hurried after her and together they arrived to the greenhouses in a nick of time.

"Sooo… what's your story?" Kia asked when they had been planting some weird, purple, sticky and stinking plants to bigger pots for a while. Her gloves were covered in greenish goo that sizzled unnervingly.

"What? Does everyone have to have one?" Val answered cringing inwardly at her answer. Sometimes not being able to lie was a pain.

"No, of course not, I was just wondering why you suddenly appeared here that's all." for such a noisy person Kia sounded surprisingly nonchalant while shooting her with questions.

"Dad thought it would be best. You know with the war going on and all and Dumbledore being here… I think he just wanted me to be safe." she finally answered after an internal debate, hoping that she had given enough information to dodge more questions but still being vague enough.

"What does your dad do then? Like as a profession?" Kia asked when she was apparently done pondering her previous answer.

"Politics"

"Wow. Do I know him?"

"No."

After that, it was silent once again. It was amazing how once Kia got her hands really in to something, this concentrated expression appeared on her face and she almost completely forgot that Val was even there. When she was like this, she was almost tolerable, Valerian thought, while adding more soil to her plant and pouring in some water. She was the first one to finish the assignment of her class. Others were struggling with the plants long and sticky tangles or wiping off the goo from their faces. Not really sure what she was supposed to do now, she just let her mind wander. Soon she was somewhere far, far a way from that stinking greenhouse and all the humans around her; in some other time, some other place where she remembered she had been happy. Now that memory felt so distant that she almost couldn't find it anymore.

"Hey Val, the class is over." someone was gently shaking her awake from her musings. Slowly her eyes focused on Kia's amused face and she plinked few times before looking about. Around them students were collecting their belongings and starting to head back to the castle.

"Are you coming for dinner?" Kia asked, holding her book bag for her, already packed and ready.

"No. I have to meet Professor Slughorn" Val answered while taking the bag and pulling the strap over her head.

"Well good luck with that!" giggling at her, Kia skipped out of the greenhouse, catching up with some people and easily falling in to conversation with them. Shaking her head at the girl's manic behaviour, Valerian headed off to her potions lesson. Plants were easy to understand, she was a fay after all so connecting with nature was something she did naturally. Boiling things up in a cauldron in a precise manner was instead something she dreaded with a passion.

-XXX-

The potions lesson ended up being a rather discomforting experience. You could probably say that Professor Slughorn was nice enough and patient when it came down to explaining even simple principals to her. Val had never really studied potion making before, so they just ended up going through the basics. The theory was easy enough to understand. It was the orderliness and preciseness that Valerian lacked. It probably didn't come as a surprise to her professor seeing as the _sidhe_ weren't really known to be any of those things. Fay magic was all about intuition and "feeling right" and maters as such. The fact that made the lesson awkward was the unnerving glint in the teacher's eyes every time he looked at her. He repeatedly rubbed his plump hands together and liked his lips, reminding her of a fat boy in a confectionary, trying to choose witch cake to buy.

The memory made her shudder, as she was returning to her room after an uneventful astronomy class.

"_The man who invented it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it. The man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?_" asked the eagle head guarding the door to the common room.

"I'm really not in the mood for this right now you know." Val whined while trying to think up an answer.

"A coffin "she answered eventually. Her thoughts had been so morbid lately that it didn't take long to end up with that conclusion. The door creaked open and she stepped inside. It was so late at night that the room was almost empty. Usually at this time Val would have been full of energy, ready to meet the night ahead of her. Right now, she just felt tired all over and her body was completely confused by the weird sleeping pattern she had had recently.

When she finally got to her room the first thing she did, was send her schoolbag flying to the far corner of the room and pull her robes violently over her head. Kayn looked at her grudgingly, not really liking the fact that she had been left alone for the whole day.

"I'm sorry Kayn." she told it while fishing the drawer for some of her old clothes.

"If it helps at all, I had a crappy day too." she put on her favourite tunic and a pair of dark blue pants. The fabric was light and soft and it flowed down airily around her figure.

Being able to let her wings out and stretch them fully felt heavenly. Val let the form she had been keeping up all day slip away and returned to her old self. The tension she had felt the whole day left her body slowly, while her bare feet patted on the soft carped and she climbed to sit on the window still.

"I'm afraid, Kayn." she told to the big cat who had come to gently push her head against her, purring loudly in order to cheer her up. She scratched her friend around her silky ears and made room for her to come and rest by her legs. Together they watched out of the window, in to the night and the dark forest spreading out in the distance.

"I miss her so much." Valerian whispered after a silence that had continued for several hours. She didn't notice that her cheeks were wet with tears before Kayn reached over and liked them away, whining sympathetically at her while doing so. It took another hour for her to fall asleep on her spot at the window. She didn't wake up to the noise coming from downstairs when other students headed off to breakfast, or when the room was filled with bright sunshine. She was simply too tired to even shift in her sleep. The whole time the lynx didn't move from its guarding spot by her feet. Purring calmingly every time the girl whimpered in her sleep, and nudging her gently to ease her back to a restful sleep.

* * *

><p><em>I put a link to a picture of Val to my profile page, so if you want to see it go take a look. I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit weird, I have had a mild migraine for a few days now and my head feels hazy. Please please please make me happy again and review :) I would love to hear what you think! <em>


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_Where everyone has their own obsessions_

One week had passed after they had had their first lesson with Valerian. Charms turned out to be the only subject they had with her, but it was enough to surface a lot of different emotions amongst the Marauders. Remus continued to work as her partner in practical exercises, witch was irritating the flees out of him. Full moon was getting nearer again, and he was growing to be so irritable that even James was getting his pants in a twist despite of his usually so good-humored attitude.

Sirius found himself being even more intrigued when the days passed. It amazed him how Valerian managed to slip into the daily life of Hogwards without anybody really paying her any mind. Sure, there were few rumors he had heard, mostly amongst Ravenclaws, but very few of them had nothing to do with her being a _sidhe_. Most of them just stated that she was new, a bit creepy and liked mostly to keep to herself. Of course there were a few different theories of why she had enrolled here in the first place. Apparently someone was able to befriend her enough to fish out some real information. It seemed that her dad had something to do with the politics and had run into to trouble with the Death Eaters and send her here to be out of the way. It wasn't too unusual off an occurrence recently and happened often enough that people rarely questioned it anymore.

"I have a theory" Sirius suddenly blurted. They were sitting in the back of the charms classroom as usual. James was playing with that bloody' snitch again, glancing at Lily every so often hoping that she would notice him. Witch she obviously didn't, but it didn't stop him from hoping that this day would be different for some reason.

"You have been torturing your brains for days and _now_ you have a theory?" Remus mocked sarcasm mixed in with his tired voice. The dark circles under his eyes made the scowl look that much darker, when he tried to concentrate to the lesson they were in. Hand shaking a bit while taking notes at his small and usually so even script.

"Well I didn't hear you having one before me either Moony." Sirius countered annoyed, his friend's moody attitude was irritating even him when it had continued to go on for days now.

"Anyway, as I was saying; I bet her parents are some fancy-ass fay diplomats who send her here to make connections, so that she can take over their title and become some fancy-ass fay diplomat and earn a bunch of fay-money to their already devastatingly rich family line. If she is an upper-class _sidhe_ it would explain why she keeps beating Remus so easily at charms. They have a lot stronger magical abilities than the common fay-folk would posses. "He continued with a smug expression plastered on his face.

The three of them turned all to steal glances at the fay, who was sitting in her seat so still, that she could have been a statue. The table before her remained as empty as her blank stare, lips pulled into a tight line. It was a familiar sight by now. Val never really spoke to them if they didn't address her specifically or asked questions, and even then her answers were usually short. If something could be said with only one word, the better it seemed to be for her.

"I don't know Padfoot. To me she doesn't seem like she is cut out to be something like that. For Merlin's sake, look at her; she looks like even a small breeze could brake her in two." James eventually said, messing up his hair while clearly thinking too hard.

"Or maybe she just doesn't think we are worth the trouble." muttered Remus quietly, bend over his notes again. His two friends just stared at him without blinking for a moment, at loss of what to say.

"Well I suppose that could be it" James didn't sound too sure about that, but decided that it was better not to argue with Remus right now.

"What ever it is, I think we should shake her up a bit. She has been torturing poor Moony all week, so it would only be fair." It sounded like this was not the first time this thought had crossed Sirius' mind and he couldn't wait to get it out. They all fell silent for a while, pondering the possibilities.

"Oh what the hell, we do that all the time anyway." James wasn't all too comfortable with agreeing, but he was loyal to his friends and if this was what they wanted, then so be it.

"So what do you think we should do? Some brilliant hex or a prank?" Sirius asked, already getting exited. He wasn't sure why that stoic expression of Val's annoyed him so much, and the thought of getting some reaction out of her made him almost giddy with anticipation.

"I think we should go with the hex. Its simple enough that we should be able to pull it off with a breeze." and that way he wouldn't have to think too much of it, James added silently to himself.

"Sounds good, we should be able to whip something up in no time. What do you think Moony?" Sirius was almost bouncing on his seat by now.

"Yeah, sure what ever works for you I guess..." Remus was barely following their conversation at all, instead he was trying to concentrate to what ever it was that Flitwick was currently lecturing for them.

The following afternoon both James and Sirius spend few moments at the library looking for inspiration. Their unexpected presence caused a lot of attention amongst the meticulously studying Ravenclaw girls. A lot of blushing, giggling and curious glances followed, but eventually the boys were able to find something they deemed useful and left, never noticing how much ruckus they had managed to cause in the usually so quiet learning environment.

"I still think we should go with the ostrich. I mean, James, what were you thinking? Even I can see that scales would be a bit too disturbing." They argued on their way to the common room. Both of them were in high spirits after so much planning of mischief. Something like that was always able to turn their frowns upside down, and the dark mindset their friend had had for the past days was left forgotten for now.

" I just want to try it out... Maybe on some slimy Slytherin then? Oh hey! What about an ostrich covered in scales? I don't think I have ever seen anything as weird as that would probably turn out to be..." James speculated, his eyes were gleaming brightly with the thought while they rounded the last corner.

"Hey Cynthia." a sly grin appeared immediately on Sirius' face at the sight of the platinum blond girl with endless legs blocking their path to the portrait hole.

"Hello boys. What the two of you are plotting this time?" she purred, smiling with those full lips of hers that were painted with a fresh pink color, like flower petals and morning dew. She was one of the hottest girls in Gryffindor, and she and Sirius had obnoxiously flirted their way through the school years, newer really reaching the point of actually dating.

"Same old, same old. We were talking about that ridiculously hard essay about how to tame house-elves that we have to do for DADA." he said winking at her at the same time. '

"Damn! I totally forgot about that assignment." Cynthia's honey brown eyes were wide with mock surprise. "Its so good that I run in to you guys then. I better head off to look for Lily so that I can ask few tips from her. Play nice okay? Don't blow off the roof or anything that would mess up my hair. I use a lot of time to make it this pretty." she said with a wink and a giggle. After making sure that the boys thought her joke was a funny one, she strutted down the corridor and disappeared behind the next corner, leaving the two of them to look after her in wonder.

"Sometimes I don't understand you Padfoot. Why on earth you haven't asked her out already? Those pretty puppy-dog eyes of hers were completely begging you to."James threw his arm around Sirius' shoulder while they stepped through the portrait hole.

"She is all milk and honey right now, but trust me, I don't want to let the tiger out of its cage, especially one as hungry as she is." he answered with a shudder. James just laughed and patted him on the shoulder before blobbing down on the sofa next to Remus.

"How about you, has Lily finally agreed to date you?" Sirius asked even as he knew the answer already.

"No, but its only a matter of the time before she realizes how awesome I am." he said with his usual bravado. "Hi Pete, haven't seen you in a while. Listen, we have a plan..." and so they proceeded to explain the situation to their quiet, mouse-like friend who listened to them his watery eyes shining with admiration.

-XXX-

"Shh. She is coming this way. On three; one, two, three!" They cast their hexes at the same time, already grinning like madmen in anticipation of what they would soon see. There was a flash of purple and green light, and then - then nothing. Valerian corrected the strap of her bag while walking past them, shooting them an icy glare in the process of doing so, but didn't even say a word to them. If it weren't for that meaningful look that wished them all dead, they would have thought that nothing had actually happened at all.

"Well that was very anticlimactic." the letdown was thick in Sirius' voice while he shot daggers at the fays back with his eyes.

"Lets just forget that it ever happened and try something different instead?" James suggested, yet again trying to be the optimist of the group. Remus looked thoughtful, furrowing his brow while scratching absentmindedly those tiny scars he had along his jaw bone. He muttered something about going to the library before he disappeared yet again, leaving the other two to their own vises.

"You know, Moony has been awfully weird lately." Sirius noted, after the confused silence that had fallen after Remus had left.

"I've noticed that too. The full moon isn't in another week or so..." James frowned, "Do you think we should try something else to cheer him up a bit?" He couldn't help but feel a bit hopeful at the prospect of leaving the girl alone. It just didn't feel right to him, like they weren't really thinking this thing through properly and should have taken something to consideration that they had overlooked.

"No, I want to try one more time. After that we can go look for Moony and figure this thing out alright?" The thought of leaving the fay alone filled Sirius with the feeling of disappointment witch source he wasn't really able to place. He just knew that something about that girl bugged him and he wanted to do something to relieve that persistent itch. And when was the last time a good prank hadn't done that for him?

To be completely honest, they ended up trying a bit more than just once.

* * *

><p><em>So here it is. Some Marauder action. I had a lot of trouble with this chapter and ended up cutting it in two. The language was a pain, sense my own is so different that sometimes I had no idea how to say the things I wanted in english. If its weird just tell me how to correct it okay? <em>

_Just tell me what you think allright? It would make me so happy to hear from you!_


	7. Chapter 6

_Little Kaie sitting in a train. Tap tap tap goes her laptop while the darkness falls outside. Till late in the evening she travels, even when an early morning waits. Nearby sits a girl, she knits rainbows to her mittens when the hour changes to another. In the north, there where is home, first snow falls gently down painting white patterns on the ground._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6<strong>

_Where memories come back to haunt us_

_S__he was falling. Falling straight down and head first towards the unforgiving ground below. In the window shrinking rapidly above were downcast ice-blue eyes full of concern. Falling so fast that the wind brought tears in her eyes, beating her wings, begging her to open them up to save herself from the impact. It was a long way down. Long way to fall. She had plenty of time for unnecessary thoughts, when all she wanted to do was close her eyes and let her body drop. Endlessly, endlessly down she went. And then, when the ground was so close that it would only take a heartbeat for her to be squished in to a bloody puddle in the crass, she opened her wings and glided gracefully over the field. Hands caressing the long crass while she went. _

_The night was so dark, that even if someone was to look out of the window they wouldn't be able to see her little stunts. The sky was overcast with heavy clouds but it wasn't raining yet. Wind was blowing hard, pulling and pushing her in different directions while she sore back up to the sky over the castle roofs. Peaks that were so sharp that they punctured holes to the looming storm clouds above. For this night only, she would let herself go._

_-XXX-_

"Here you are! We searched everywhere for you." James' tone was a bit accusing when he seated himself on a nearby armchair. They had found Remus calmly sitting on their usual corner at the common room after an hour of looking around the castle.

"When you weren't in the library we thought you had gone for dinner but Peter said he hadn't seen you since lunch. Where have you been?" Sirius wasn't happy either when he pulled a chair for himself, closer to the fire like he usually preferred.

"The library was too busy with people so I came here. Wasn't really hungry either." Remus answered from behind a really big and old looking book that seemed like no-one else had read it in ages.

"Seriously Moony, you are not acting like your usual self. Is everything alright?" It was typical James to jump right to the core of things. He was never the one for a mindless chitchat when something needed to be sorted out. It was one of the things Sirius valued in his all but blood brother the most at times like these.

"Sure, it's not like something is really wrong or anything. I have just been feeling a bit off lately that's all." Remus sighed, lowering the monstrous book to his side at the sofa and looking at the two of them with his tired eyes.

"Seems to me, that there is more to it than just that." Sirius was not ready to let the matter be brushed off that easily. His gray eyes were the same color as the storm clouds gathering behind the window when they directed their piercing stare at him. It took few moments before the staring contest finally had an effect.

"I haven't been sleeping well lately." Remus started. "I see all these weird dreams that I don't really understand. They feel off, like they are really not my dreams at all if that makes even sense." It seemed like a floodgate had been opened and the words were just pouring out of his mouth at their own accord. "It's like seeing these confusing glints at someone's dreams or memories, but they come at me completely warped and unrecognizable. It's hard to concentrate at anything when I'm so tired with this and the coming full moon are combined and I continue to see glimpses of that stuff when I am awake too..." he finished, pulling at the roots of his hare frustrated and at loss of what to do.

James and Sirius just sat there looking at him. Their faces were twisted in equal looks of worry and sympathy, and neither of them really knew what to say or do to console their usually so composed best friend.

"Maybe it has something to do with your furry little problem? Have you tried to look something up from the books at the library or mentioned this to madam Pomfrey yet? "Sirius asked finally furrowing his brows, deciding that when a situation was this confusing they really needed some sort of a plan.

"Of course I have searched the books already, but I didn't find anything, and you know I don't want to mention this to Poppy. She worries about me enough already." Remus rubbed his aching eyes with the soles of his hands. He felt relieved after telling his problems to his friends, but didn't like the fact that now they were worried about him without actually being able to help.

"We will head to the library together tomorrow alright. I'm sure we can figure this thing out together." James said soothingly. "What's that you were reading before we came?" he pointed his finger to the book laying on the couch, that was so heavy it made a deep dent to the cushion it was on.

"Its about myths and folklore and stuff. I figured it might help you guys with dealing with the fay..." Remus didn't add that he had a feeling it might help with his problem too, judging by the images flashing through his mind in his sleep.

"Good thinking. Let me have a look then?" James took the book with an oof and scanned the page Remus had been reading earlier. "Well its all written in rhymes and stuff so it's not really clear, but I think its saying here that the _sidhe_ dislike water. They are a bit like cats in that extend, not wanting to get wet" He chuckled. "I wonder how they clean themselves then." he finished wit a laugh. Sirius looked rather disgusted by that thought and looked at Remus disbelievingly, begging him to say that what ever it was he was thinking wasn't right.

"With magic you morons!" Remus barked, laughing at their shocked expressions, the mood around them feeling a lot lighter than it had for days.

-XXX-

"Lets go this through one more time to make sure that Peter understands." Sirius said. It was day after Remus' little rant and their plan had had time to form. Peter was shoveling his lunch down his throat, looking a bit green after realizing what his friends were expecting him to do.

"First we set everything up and make sure that no-one else will mess up the plan by walking in on it on the wrong moment. Then you go to her and tell her that professor Slughorn asked her to fetch some more antidotes from the cupboard at the hospital wing , sense he likes to keep some at hand in his classroom just in case an accident happens. Give her directions if she asks them. Then when she comes and opens the door to the cupboard and steps in, a ton of water will fall on her and she will be wet as a fish in the pond. It's a classic and a bit unoriginal but at least this time it will work." Sirius finished and shoved a forkful of mashed potatoes in to his mouth.

"Why does it have to be me? Why not Remus?" Peter whined, food still in his mouth, witch was not a pretty sight.

"Because she doesn't know you and so she will not suspect anything." James explained for the thousandth time. After that, they all finished their meals in relative silence and headed off to class. The day passed quickly after that and it was soon late afternoon and time to put their plan in to action.

While Peter went to look for Valerian they sneaked in to the hospital wing to set everything up and hid behind the corner to watch the events unroll. They didn't even have to wait all that long before Val appeared looking almost puzzled and determined, if you had to name those hints of an expressions she wore on her eerily doll-like face.

"I can't believe she fell for it after all that trouble we went through with trying to hex her." Sirius whispered while they watched how the fay approached the cupboard door, placed her hand on the handle and pulled it open, stepping inside after some time of hesitation. They heard her scream in surprise and after that a bang when the door swung closed after her. For a moment they waited for the fireworks to start and for Val to come out fuming at them so bad that smoke would come from her ears. When they could hear someone banging the door on the other side an the howling started, they soon realized that something had gone seriously wrong. It was a heartbreaking inhuman sound that chilled them to their core. They couldn't help but wonder what kind of person could possibly let out a sound like that.

"I think the door is jammed." James said finally, his face ash pale.

-XXX-

_The water was nailing her down, draining her and stopping her from mowing. Her wings felt heavy and aching and she was unable to lift them properly, unable to shimmer out of there - out to where was safety. She felt cold, so cold. The iron in the room in the form of shelves and boxes and pots was hungrily eating at her magic, her life the precious resources that were already spreading too thin in this hateful place. _

"_Please, please somebody!" She begged, banging the door for the last time before falling to the floor. She didn't realize that in her frantic condition, no-one was able to understand her. To them her pleas for help were just blood curling howls, eerily enchanting and terrifying at the same time. Violent shivers ran through her body while flashes of her memories traveled before her eyes. When they finally were able to open the door and get her out of there, her mind had already given in to the terrors of her own psyche and her deep indigo eyes were staring emptily at sights they couldn't see. _

"_Come on Valerian, It's full moon and you need to get your strength back." Her mother's voice had been soft and alluring while she prompted her along. The early summer night had been warm and the scent of flowers hanging heavily on the air. She remembered how the wind had felt on her wings, and how the crass had been wet with morning dew while they danced chanting their prayers for the guardians of night. They had followed the familiar paths of the rituals and the magic had filled her yet again, made her new and strong and filled her with the feelings of joy and peace. It had felt right and familiar, like any other time before that. When they had come out from their hiding places to be one with the night they were a part of. It was their way of life, how the sidhe sustained themselves and their magic. It had been like any other night of her life._

_There had been no warning. Not a sense of dread or ominous sings to prepare her for what was to come. Suddenly she had felt something cold and wet hit her. When she had tried to shimmer back home or to fly away, her wings weren't working. Instead they had been wet and hurting all over, feeling so heavy that she was almost unable to lift them at all. Frightened, she had yelled for her mother, trying frantically to find her in the darkens only to see, that they were both surrounded by black-hooded figures, wearing masks to cover up their faces. It was like a scene from a nightmare. It had felt so surreal, that when one of them lifted his hand, holding a thin stick firmly in his fingers like it held all the power he would ever need in his life, she hadn't known what to expect. The last thing she remembered hearing before the flash of light and the following blackness was her mother's voice shouting at her name. She had sounded so terrified that she had thought it meant she was dying._

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><p><em>So this is what happened when dad made me too many cappuchinos with their new espresso machine. I was at home visiting my parents for the weekend so I had time to write. I would hate to say that I won't update before I get even one more review, but at least I would really like to hear what you think. It keeps me motivated to upload new chapters faster ;) <em>


	8. Chapter 7

I should probably warn you that this is a rather dialogue heavy chapter. I had a lot of problems with it, and eventually just decided to get it out of my system even if its not all that perfect, just to get on with the story. Ended up using most of my day writing it. Sorry for the wait ^^'

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><p><strong>Chapter 7<strong>

_Where questions are answered only to rise hunred more_

They watched in heavy silence as McGonagall and madam Pomfrey finally were able to open the cupboard door. Apparently Peeves had had something to do with it being jammed in the first place. He had a tendency to get carried away when in came to pranks and general disorder, and to Peeves nothing else really existed. When the door creaked open Val's body fell out limply with a silent thud. She had to have been leaning against it when she lost consciousness and now she was lying on the cold floor half out of the closet. It seemed more like some scene in a sinister play than real life occurrence. The human façade she had kept up all this time was nowhere to be seen, and they found themselves staring at a creature that clearly was all but human.

Her eyes were a solid indigo blue color with silver specs scattered in them like stardust. There was no whites or irises to speak of, only endless pools of deep blue that now was staring blankly to nothingness. Her face, that had been eerily doll like before, was now clearly that of a _sidhe_, with high pronounced cheekbones and a bit catlike features around the eyes. Under a small delicate nose was full lips parted to reveal slightly feline like pointed row of pearl white teeth. Her pale skin was shimmering in the dim evening sun coming through the high windows. It glistened the same way a snow would, if hit by the winter sun, sending small scatters of light in different directions. All the softness that was characteristic to humans was gone, replaced by sharp angled fragileness that was beautiful and yet deeply terrifying at the same time.

Her body looked so small and frail when madam Pomfrey lifted her effortlessly off the floor. Her wings were hanging limply on her back, dripping wet and shivering slightly along with the tremors going through her small frame. Bones were jutting out in curious angles, reminding them a bit of a small bird of some kind.

"Are they supposed to be _that_ small?" Sirius asked disbelievingly trying to wrap his mind around the sight he was currently witnessing.

"Maybe; they need to be light to be able to fly don't they." Remus answered to him, but didn't really sound all that convinced himself either. It just felt weird, seeing something that looked so much like human yet didn't, and therefore they were not able to judge what they were seeing by human standards.

While madam Pomfrey carried the fay towards her office, McGonagall directed her piercing gaze at the boys lurking near by. The expression on her face was the iciest and most threatening they had ever witnessed before, and that was saying something; sense they had a tendency to find trouble rather often.

"I believe that the headmaster would like a word with you." She said and then pressed her thin lips in to a straight line, a muscle twitching in the corner of her eye. When she turned her back to them to lead the way out of the hospital wing, the Marauders exchanged equal looks of dread and regret.

"I think we screwed up big this time." whispered James his face still unnaturally pale and he looked like he would throw up at any second. Peter led out a small squeak while the other two just nodded in agreement before they hurried after the professor.

The journey through the school corridors was a silent one. Their professor's frame was rigid and straight while she escorted them to Dumbledore's office. Sirius walked in a state of haze, not really able to comprehend what exactly had just happened, and did a double take after noticing that he was already standing in the headmasters study. The portraits were busily whispering among themselves and after regarding them for a while he dragged his eyes to meet the piercing gaze of his headmaster.

"Sit down boys, I believe we have some serious matters to discuss" Dumbledore said in a tired voice while taking his place behind the large cluttered table. After they had all taken their seats, fidgeting uneasily and looking anywhere else except their headmaster he cleared his throat and leaned forward, placing his elbows on the edge of the table and connecting his fingertips in to a spiderlike pattern before him.

"I have to say, that I am rather disappointed in you right now. I am well aware that you have a certain fondness towards playing pranks to your fellow students, but what you did today, must absolutely never happen again. Am I understood?" The four boys stuttered compliant answers at his harsh tone, but this didn't seem to appease him fully.

"I believe you are aware of Miss Nightshades… special circumstances?" he eventually asked. An awkward silence followed, while Dumbledore proceeded to stare at them expectantly. Eventually, it was Sirius who nodded apprehensively and the professor sighed deeply while pinching the bridge of his lumpy nose.

"It is probably best if I explain you something to ensure that this kind of situation _will__not_ repeat it self." he said after some time of contemplation.

"We are at war." He stated, leaning back in his high-backed chair. After a prominent pause he continued

"This war is the very reason, why I insisted for her attendance… Humans are not the only ones that are now affected by the situation. It has reached the point, where the whole magical community is involved, and I am sure you understand that this means that new alliances are needed. I am telling you this, also because I am hoping that one day you will be making your own contributions in the actions against Lord Voldemort. "At this point his stern expression momentarily turned in to and encouraging smile.

"Now, we have sent requests to many different directions, some are compliant to our cause, some are not. I need not explain to you why the _sidhe_ would be an extremely powerful ally, the problem here lies in that they are a very long living race, and what is almost ancient history to us, is very much remembered in their midst." This caused Remus to let out a surprised noise that earned an approving look from the headmaster.

"In the old days, it was relatively common especially for dark wizards to hunt them down for different sorts of magical purposes. As highly magical creatures this practise offered a vast amount of possibilities, a fact that is now caused the custom to resurface. "Dumbledore paused again, allowing his words time to sink in and the boys time to fully comprehend the meaning behind them.

"While this certainly gives the _sidhe_ a certain kind of motivation in the fight against the Dark Lord, it also causes certain types of problems in the case of trust. And as of rule, the _sidhe_ are not very trusting when it comes to us humans. It took me a long while to persuade them to send one of their own here, to a place full of humans. I am hoping that when they see that she is perfectly safe here as well as treated with the proper respect, and there are indeed people that are worth their trust; they are willing to cooperate with us in our time of need."

The Marauders sat quietly; carefully digesting the information they had been given. Dumbledore observed them silently and when he was sure that he had achieved the effect he had been hoping for, he rose from his seat.

"I suggest you give it some more thought when you have time." he said while looking straight at James with his blue eyes meaningfully.

"About the matter at hand: I am under the impression that Peeves had his own spoon mixed in the soup, so I think that three detentions for each of you would suffice. You will be informed with the details later." he concluded while escorting the silent group to the door.

"Now off you go. Straight to your dorms if you may."

-XXX-

"I still can't believe it. It all feels so surreal." James huffed after slumping to his usual seat in the Gryffindor common room.

"Tell me about it." Sirius said forcefully rubbing his eyes, trying to put his thoughts in to a proper order. Remus didn't say anything; he was staring intensively at nothing in particular, chewing his lower lip deep in contemplation. They all sat in silence for a moment.

"So basically what Dumbledore was saying to us, was that we possibly screwed up his plans at making alliances with the fay?" It was James who broke the silence first. Somehow the thought made him sick all over again.

"Yeah, something of the sort at least." Sirius agreed. This was followed by another thoughtful pause.

"Do you think… maybe… that we should try to fix this?" James brought up eventually. He very much wanted to do all he could to help in the fight against the Dark Lord, and he felt like Dumbledore had purposefully pointed him to the direction he could be of use.

"I mean, if we can win over at least the one fay, I'm sure it'll help with the negotiations right? It must be one of the reasons why Dumbledore wanted her here in the first place…" he tried to reason.

"Its easier said than done though." Sirius agreed. "_Merlin_, I feel so stupid now. I never once stopped to think properly what I was doing… It's just… that even looking at her bugged me so much. The way she beat Remus in every lesson and acted like it was common occurrence… all high and mighty, like we were below her somehow… or so I thought… Now I'm not so sure anymore. We know nothing of her." at the end of his rant he was violently tugging at his hair in frustration.

"Maybe that's where we should start then." Remus suddenly broke his silence; the look on his face was that of a person who had suddenly awoken from a deep slumber.

"If we are indeed decided to win her over for the sake of the war and all, we should start by putting together what we already know of her and then search for more information. The more we know, the easier the task itself will be. Even if it's still going to be bloody hard." he concluded.

"Yeah, you have a good point." James admitted, ruffling at his messy hair while trying to get a good grip of himself.

"So we know that she is a _sidhe_… and apparently her dad is into politics. It would make sense. If he is a big shot in the fay society, having his daughter here and earning their trust would make a greater impact. Also we know that Val's magic is quite strong, so she has to be part of the court…" he listed, lifting a finger to mark each point he made.

"One of the problems here is that we know so little about the fay. Its like professor Graymoor said on DADA. The _sidhe_ have been in hiding so long that humans have lost almost all accurate information we had of them. I think that's one reason why the prank went so wrong too. We knew that water has some effect on her, just not exactly what it would do…" Sirius continued. When James looked appropriately horrified at the mentioning of his past class attentiveness, he proceeded to throw him with the first object he could reach. Luckily for James it was a pillow, and not one of the books Remus had left lying around.

"Actually I have been doing some research on the matter." Remus inserted.

"Somehow I'm not surprised." James chuckled at that, earning a dirty look from him.

"I had a feeling it might come in handy." he said irritably. "There wasn't much to go from, just few scraps here and there, but I was able to put together a general idea at least. Like we learned in DADA, they are divided in different classes; the high and low courts and the common folk. There are also some that are called solitary, sense they don't really belong to none of the classes. There is also more than one court, and even those courts are divided in to smaller ones. It was all really confusing. Humans generally know them as The Day and The Night courts, but they have their own names for them too of course…" At this point he noticed that the other three regarded him with rather confused faces.

"Here, I'll draw you a diagram, that way it's easier to understand… I think they made it intentionally this complicated…" he said, grapping a piece of parchment and a quill from the nearest table.

"So it's kind of like this… but for some reason we have only The Night courts left in Britain… It has something to do with the subspecies… The Night courts includes more of the _unseelie _sort than the day ones, they are supposed to be more violent than the _seelie_ so they probably were able to defend themselves better against the hunts back in the day. Remember how Greymoor said they live in hiding? Well it's sort of a different plain altogether. It's called The Dark Fields, or Nidavellir, but apart from the name I couldn't find much about it, just that you shouldn't eat or drink anything there… "Remus furrowed his brow suddenly, thinking that his sleep deprived ramblings probably didn't make much of a sense to the others, diagrams or no diagrams.

"Well the point is, that she is probably nocturnal, and the place she grew up in was probably very different from ours." he completed eventually wearily.

"Of course there is the whole matter of fay magic an all that, but it was mostly the same shit we went through in DADA; shapesifting, glamours, suggestion, familiars and all sorts of tricks…" his mind started to wander again, and the end of his speech came out almost incoherent mumbling.

"Come on Moony, you are clearly so tired that you have already started swearing." James chuckled good-humouredly placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go upstairs and try to get some sleep. We can figure this thing out tomorrow when you have stopped gibbering in half asleep. Now on three: one, two, _three_." He said, pulling Remus up from the couch. The poor lad was almost asleep on his feet while James walked him up the stairs and pushed him down on his bed throwing a blanket over him before proceeding to get ready for bed, other two following them soon after.


	9. Chapter 8

This is so far the longest chapter I have written. I decided to give some special love for Remus and Kia this time. If there is an aspect or a character you would like to read more about just leave a review and Ill see what I can do ^^

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><p><strong>Chapter 8<strong>

Where shifty-eyed and restless one dreams of a presence

_He was lying on a dusty wooden floor in a room that had clearly not been used for quite some time. What small amount of furniture was left was broken and pushed against the walls. The light was dim and pale, like grey winter mornings, seemingly coming out of nowhere and everywhere at once. Nothing had a shadow. "Tik, tok, tik, tok tik, tok" He could hear the hollow sound of an old grandfather-clock from some other room. He stood up carefully, slowly, as if not to disturb the stagnant world around him, dusting his clothes of before walking to the door and placing his hand on the handle. _

_His surroundings shifted, and for a heartbeat everything was just a swirl of colours before settling again. Now he found himself standing in the middle of a field. The hey was high - up to his waist and moving like an ocean in a breeze that he was unable to feel against his skin. Above him was an endless black sky without a single star in sight. It was so vast that it almost gave you a claustrophobic feeling while looking at it. He turned frantically on his spot, trying to find something to focus his eyes on when the world turned with him…_

_It was a room again, but that was the end of the similarities with the first one he had been. It was a rather large space, the ceiling patterned with the night sky so skilfully that it looked convincingly real. The walls and the floor were made of white stone. Walls and pillars were carved in detail in the forms of trees, leafs and even small twigs included. It was impossible to say whether they were actually made of stone or real trees turned into it someway. In the midst of the branches small glimmering balls of silvery blue light illuminated the room softly, creating dancing shadows everywhere. The furniture was just as breathtaking, with intricate ornamental forms that twisted and turned, as light and effortless like a summer night breeze. It was probably a bedroom of some kind, even though it was hard to say with everything looking so different than he was used to. The silvery fabrics were flowing like a morning mist, light as a baby's breath, looking like they would be just as soft to the touch as the finest silk, or – as he added as an afterthought – James' cloak of invisibility._

_The colour scheme was a seamless continuation from the night that spread out behind the three French doors open at the far side of the room. Together they took up that wall almost completely, only white treelike pillars standing in between. The curtains, flowing in the wind coming in from the open doors, were an extension from the night sky on the ceiling, stars pooling down in a stream of liquid blue velvet. Feeling calm and nostalgic in a peculiar sort of way, even when he was certain he had not seen the room never in his life before, he proceeded to move closer to the nearest door, curious to see what he would glimpse outside this mysterious place, and maybe finding some clue as to where exactly he was. But just when he reached the threshold, the world shifted yet again. _

_A feeling of complete terror overwhelmed him. He heard cold, metallic laughter around him. Several voices, but he was unable to distinguish exactly how many people there were. Dark figures without faces, closing in on him, laughing all the while, only one of those had eyes at least as far as he could see, but after seeing the sinister and ravenous way those eyes observed him, he wished he could unsee them, or at the very least - forget. The world sifted yet again, just as the figure was stepping closer, leaning over him… and he screamed, at the top of his lungs he screamed, and not a sound came out._

"Remus… Remus wake up, you are starting to scare the hell out of me." It was James' voice that was breaking through the walls of his sleep. The insistent shaking on his shoulder dragged him ever so slowly closer to consciousness and after a while, he slowly sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes with shaking hands. He was covered in cold sweat and shaking all over, the terror of his dreams still somewhat lingering in the background of his mind.

"Thanks mate, I really needed the wakeup." Remus said earnestly, attempting a shaky smile when he finally met the worried gaze of his friend who was sitting on the edge of his bed.

"What was that about? You were trashing in you bed for almost an hour with this really pained look on your face. You looked like you might have as well been under the Cruciatus Curse or something of the sort. I couldn't even wake you up…" James rubbed his face tiredly; he was obviously stunned by the scene he had had to witness, not as much as Remus was however.

"It was the dreams again, the ones I told you about." he explained. Every cell of his body felt so heavy and tired, but after the dream he had just had, the thought of sleeping send shivers down his spine.

"I don't really feel like sleeping after that, so I'm probably just going to take a shower… what's the time anyway?" he asked while swinging his legs over the edge of his bed and standing up.

"It's just over four." James answered, without even glancing at the clock.

"You should go back to bed. I'll just go down to the commonroom to do some reading and wake you up when it's time for breakfast." He attempted to smile again to assure him, but could tell that it came out rather pathetic. James just nodded and crawled back under his cowers most likely falling asleep in the matter of minutes.

Remus patted barefooted in the dark to the bathroom, trying to avoid all the various objects scattered around the floor. He flicked the lights on with his wand and turned to stare at his reflection in the mirror. To say that he looked terrible was an understatement. The dark circles under his eyes were now almost bruise-like. His cheeks were hollow, bones jutting out and the numerous small scars on his face were even more prominent against the pale gloom of his skin. With a sight that belonged more to an old man than a 17 year old boy, he turned on the hot water and stepped under the comforting droplets of warmth raining down on him.

-XXX-

"Remember that you have to return your assignments regarding transfigurating large mammals by Monday. Class dismissed." McGonagall shouted over the noise of students gathering their belongings and leaving the classroom.

"I think we should try to talk to that girl. You know the one Val hangs out with sometimes. She would probably be able to give us some useful information." Sirius suggested when they were walking down the hallway after their last class of the day. Peter had waited them outside their classroom after his mugglestudies lesson and was now silently walking behind them, looking a bit nervous for some reason.

"You mean the Ravenclaw girl with the wild dark curly hair and weird last name?" James asked, confirming that they were indeed talking about the same person. This caused Remus to let out a dark laugh and the other boys to look at him questioningly.

"Her name is Kia, and good luck with that." he explained with a shrug. It didn't really appease either Sirius or James, but they let it slide, taking into account that he looked like a walking corpse at the moment.

"You know where we could find her then, at the library?" Sirius suggested, thinking that it was the most likely place to find a Ravenclaw.

"Probably not, but if you are lucky someone there can tell you where she is." Remus yawned and fixed the strap of his bag while dragging his feet like they weighted a ton.

"Well you and Peter can go wait for us in the common room. We'll go look for her and tell you if we found anything useful. Its not like it needs to be all four of us anyway and you could use some rest." James told him when they reached the point where they would have to part ways.

"I have somewhere else I should be." Peter squeaked in timidly, like he was afraid of what the others would say.

"It's all right Peter. I would be sleeping in any case, so you go do what ever it is that you need to do." Remus assured him patting him on the head condescendingly.

"Rrright…"Sirius frowned at them, looking suspiciously at Peter, wondering what on earth he would have to be doing. "I have been spending so much time in the library lately that I am probably turning in to a nerd at this rate." he shuddered.

"Don't worry; you would need to actually _look_ at the books for that, maybe even read a few." James laughed while dragging him away to the general direction of the library. "See you two later all right?" he yelled over his shoulder and Remus nodded at him before gradually shuffling to the other direction.

-XXX-

"Why we didn't think of using the map in the first place?" Sirius whined after two hours of running around the school without avail. They had finally been able to spot her name in one of the unused art classrooms in the east wing and had almost reached the door by now.

"Usually people are a lot easier to find." James shrugged, opening the door and peaking in. "Found her!" He stated triumphantly, producing the girl to glance up from her painting at the door. After seeing them entering the room she looked rather puzzled, clearly wondering why on Merlin's sake they were there.

"May I help you with something?" She asked. She was quite a funny sight, to tell the truth. Her dark hair was even wilder than normally, sticking up on every imaginable direction and there was some green paint smudged on the side of her nose, red and blue spots on her chin and hands. Her robes were haphazardly hanging on her frame, and generally she looked like a person who had been focusing on something so intensely that they forgot everything else including themselves for a period of time. There was this certain restlessness to her. She was never really staying completely still, always moving like a river after a heavy rain, like it was a force of nature that made her so.

"Actually we were looking for you." Sirius told her, moving a chair closer to her and sitting down. James followed his example, trying to discreetly peek at the painting at the same time.

"You were?" the girl asked, sounding a bit shocked, witch was not surprising considering that they had never really talked to each other before this.

"Yes, and you are really hard to find you know that?" James grinned at her. This made her seemingly relax and laugh a bit as a response.

"I suppose so. Now what can I do for you gentlemen?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, but somehow in such a manner that it was clearly just a joke. Sirius smirked, thinking that she was actually kind of nice to be around, even despite the fact that she was obviously a very eccentric person.

"You are friends with Val right?" he asked. Kia's smile fell from her face instantly and she turned back to her painting, mixing the colours on her palette feverishly.

"So it was you then? I have to say, I thought better of you." she said bitterly, not looking at them anymore.

"Well that's actually why we are here. You see, it wasn't supposed to go like that and we feel really awful about what happened. We want to make it up to her, but for that we need some information." James tried to reason. He had ruffled up his hair and tried to act all nonchalant; considering that it might possibly butter her up a bit, if she were to think of him as devastatingly handsome. Kia only glanced at him with her intensive green eyes before sniffing affectedly and returning back to her painting. Sirius frowned and shook his head a bit at James, assuming that Kia was probably the type of person who just weren't influenced by that kind of tactics. If nothing, they only worsened their possibilities at pumping information out of her.

"Look. Is there anything you want, that you might trade the information for?" He asked hopefully.

They waited nervously at her answer knowing fully well, that she was probably their only shot. They hadn't seen Val talking to anyone else, and really needed anything they were able to dig up in order to make amends with her. While Sirius was watching how she twirled her wand in her fingers, mixing the colours with it and adding it to the canvas with quick sharp movements, the tip never really touching the oily substances like there was an invisible brush tip attached to it, he wondered why her. Why of all people living under the roof of Hogwards Val had chosen this girl to be the only one she would converse to.

"A prank." she finally said. "And not just any sloppy one either, it has to be a good one, and I get to decide the who's and when's and where's." Her declaration made the boys exchange mischievous grins. Oh they liked this girl all right.

"Of course, that's an easy promise to make." James exclaimed, spreading his arms like he would embrace all the pranks in the world like the old friend he was. "Now give us the goodies!" Kia frowned at that, chewing her lip while pondering what to tell them.

"There isn't actually much to tell. She doesn't really talk all that much, and even less when it comes to stuff involving her self. I know her dad has something to do with politics and has run into problems with The Death Eaters apparently. I'm only assuming this sense she never really confirmed it herself… I've only seen her smile a few times, when she gets letters that are delivered by this really big raven. And I tell you, that bird scares the wits out of me every time I see it; witch thankfully is not all that often…" she took a pause, collecting her thoughts while adding some more colour to her canvas.

"I think there is something troubling her. I wish you would have just left her alone, she seems so sad already without you bullying her and making her feel even more miserable." at this point she shot a murderous look at their direction.

"What else… well she is kind of good at school, but she is a Ravenclaw after all… Oh, and she likes books. She is often reading one when she wants people to just leave her alone. I don't know what kind of though; sense I have never really seen anything like those before… She also has some weird diet; they keep her food in some box behind lock and key. I once asked her about it but she just pretended that she didn't hear me…she does that a lot" She continued rambling bits and pieces of information in no particular order except when they happened to pop in to her head.

"Could it be that you don't know that she is a fay?" Sirius blurted out suddenly realising what it was, that had been troubling him for some time now. It was James' turn to look at him murderously when Kia turned to them with a shocked expression on her face.

"She is a_fay_?" she stammered.

"Well it is kind of obvious when you think about it." Sirius told her with an apologetic grimace, like he was genuinely sorry that she hadn't noticed all the signs. It took some time to sink in, but when it did, the girl turned back to her painting with an irritated scowl splashing some angry streaks of red paint while muttering to her self.

"I can't believe she never told me! Didn't say a word… laughing…. stupid…. arrogant…." the rest of her rant was just incoherent grumbling and it sounded like she had changed in to another language at some point too.

"I think we should leave" Sirius whispered his eyes round while staring at the sight. James just nodded at him and together they silently rose from their seats and left the classroom.

"You know… I never saw what she was painting. "Sirius mused when they had been walking for a while.

"I got a glimpse at it." James told him rubbing at his chin absentmindedly, his thoughts visibly elsewhere.

"I'm curious; do tell me what it was." Sirius prompted, wondering what a girl like Kia would possibly paint.

"Well… I could never say for sure." James eventually said, his eyebrows rising so high that they almost blended to his messy black hair.

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><p>So here it is. Just tell me what you think or whether the language was weird or not. Sometimes I get confused about what sounds good in what language and all that... The last two chapters have been especially hard to write. My sleeping patterns have been a lot like Val's lately. I hope it doesn't show too badly :D but I think I will put off writing more chapters until I get my days and nights back to their rightful places. I haven't decided whether to write the next one from Val's or from the Marauders POV. Any opinions on that?<p> 


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_Were our words are that what binds us_

It was the middle of the night and the castle was silent. Smoke was drifting tranquilly out of the open window. The burning tip of the cigarette was a warm glow in the darkness of the deserted tower. When the smoke slowly erupted out of his nostrils, Sirius quietly thanked the silence. As much as he loved the night time walks with the Marauders, these lonesome moments were important to his sanity. He needed the time for his thoughts, empty space surrounding him and the comforting darkness wrapped around him like a selfish lover. This was Sirius' time and he loved every minute of it. Lately there hadn't been many opportunities to wander off by himself. What with Remus acting all weird and moody and all the other stuff that had been going on.

Moony had been trashing around his bed again when he was digging around for the map and the cloak in order to leave the dorms. He had briefly considered waking him up, but didn't want to risk anyone asking questions about his nightly comings and goings. And what would be the point anyway? Remus would just start all over again when he fell back to sleep. They had tried to help him search for answers with James, both of them able to be bloody brilliant when ever they wanted to be, but even the three of them (sense Peter wasn't much of a help to be quite honest) weren't able to find anything useful. It was frustrating to no end and they were all at loss off what to do. Even the full moon thingy had been easier to figure out… in theory at least. He led out a dark laugh while he remembered the practical part of it. It sill got pretty dangerous at some nights, even though they had grown used to it by now and knew how to handle themselves when things got a bit rough.

He took a long drag from his cigarette and then stumped the rest of it under the sole of his shoe lighting up another one straight away. He had originally picked up the habit just in order to wind up his folks, but it had stuck like the permanent grease on Snivellus' hair. It annoyed James occasionally but they had developed a truce about the matter, he never complained about him playing with that bloody snitch anymore either. Sirius entertained himself for a moment by blowing the smoke in to different shapes. He sometimes smoked the muggle ones too, but you couldn't play around with them like this, and now that he had left the Black residence for good, there was no reason to over do his statements anymore. Absentmindedly his fingertips found the few scattered scars his family had generously provided him with at his yearly summer visits back home. Never again would he step even one toe inside that house ever again, that much he had promised to himself at least. He felt a bitter sense of accomplishment, thinking about the night he had finally decided that that part of his life was permanently over.

The emotion stirred a surprising memory in his mind. The hollow dark blue eyes that were so much like his own not so long ago. The quiet desperation of the endless days, always another one waiting at the end of the one you had finally managed to pull yourself through. He couldn't help the deep resonating sensation, even though he had tried to ignore and deny it for a while now. Here in the dusty calm of the empty tower he was finally able to admit it to himself. They were so different and yet somehow at the same time they were the same, and that had to be the reason why he had felt so drawn to her in the first place. Why her impassive silence had irritated him so much. It felt too much like his own, the one he so desperately wanted to suppress somewhere to the deep end of his consciousness. He simply couldn't help it.

It was a curious sensation, wanting to get closer to someone yet at the same time feeling like running away as fast as you could, he mused while leaning back against the cold stonewall. Tonight the sky was clear and he could se the stars through the open window. Somehow the night reminded him of her. Maybe it was because he had just been thinking about her or simply because the dark was her domain. Nevertheless he conveniently overlooked the smile that pulled the corners of his mouth, while he shut his eyes to enjoy the last moments alone before returning to his dorms for the night.

-XXX-

It had been a dream. Of course it was a dream; it would have been too good to be true. The scent of the night lilies and moonflowers had been heavy in the air, curtains pillowing in the gentle breeze. The comforting familiarity of her surroundings and the sound of Avena telling her that it was time to wake up; sun had set and it was time to join her father at the entrance hall to meet the quests. The memory of her mothers gentle laugh brought tears in her eyes. Eyes, which Valerian refused to open up to ascertain that she undeniably was not at home anymore.

"Valerian, are you awake honey?" there was a gentle knock on the door. So it had not been all of her imagination then. Someone was actually trying to wake her up, and that someone sounded awfully like Madam Pomfrey.

"Valerian, there are some who would wish to see you. I told them to come again after sunset, so they will probably be here shortly. Can I come in?" It was funny how she asked that, this was her office after all, so why would she need a permission to enter? Val chose not to say anything. Instead she turned to face the wall, hiding her face out of sight, hoping that the healer would just think that she was still asleep and leave her alone. She heard the door open hesitantly. Steps neared her from across the room and then the bed creaked under added weight when someone sat on its edge.

"Sweetheart, I know you are not sleeping anymore." the woman sighed. When Val turned to look at her inquisitively she smiled her sadly. "You are never that relaxed when you are asleep." she answered to her unspoken question. Her answer annoyed Valerian a great deal. She didn't like the fact that someone had seen her sleep, not to mention in so many occasions that they were able to make generalisations about her sleeping habits. It made her feel uneasy and wish they had allowed Kayn here so she could guard her while she slept. Frowning she pulled herself up to a sitting position and waited. The healer probably had an actual reason to waking her up and the sooner she hear her out the sooner she would be left alone again - or at least so she hoped.

"I wanted to warn you in advance." Madam Pomfrey began. "I know you will probably be upset when you meet them, but I hope you will at least hear them out." She looked at her expectantly, like Val was supposed to say something. All she could think about was why the woman thought she would be meeting anyone, and then it clicked.

"No." she managed to choke out.

"Valerian, be reasonable, they only want to apologise." Pomfrey tried to calm her down, concerned expression plastered on her ordinary looking face.

"No!" she repeated desperation thick in her voice. She could feel her eyes burning again, and she couldn't stand the thought of seeing _their_ faces ever again - bastards, every last one of them.

"You will have to face them eventually, and it is better to do it now than procrastinate it to a point it will be even more unpleasant than it has to be." the witch told her firmly, in a tone that clearly said that she had made up her mind on the matter.

"They would find a way eventually anyway. Besides this way I am there to keep an eye on things just in case." she added more gently. "Put some clothes on while you wait. We will have to move you back to your dorms tonight." after this was said, she placed a small potion bottle on the nightstand and left the room closing the door softly behind her. Val wrinkled her nose at the bottle. They weren't allowed to give her any potions meant for humans, sense you were never really able to predict what would happen, so it contained only herbal extracts. She couldn't really see the point in making her drink those, but downed the bottle anyway, shuddering at the foul taste.

-XXX-

She had finished digging out her clothes and after putting them on was stretching her wings out after so many hours spend in bed, when the door slammed open.

"I TOLD YOU TO KNOK BEFORE YOU OPEN THE DOOR!" Madam Pomfrey's voice screeched at the other side of the open doorway.

"Sorry Poppy, won't happen again." someone's raspy voice tried to reassure her while two other students marched in to the small room.

"Hey Val, are you feeling better?" The one - was it James? – asked her, with a seemingly genuinely worried look on his face. Val wasn't fooled though. She proceeded to bare her teeth at him and let out a warning hiss, her posture rigid and crouched into a pose vaguely resembling a fighting stance. This seemed to shake him up a bit, and he took a surprised step back, holding his hands out in a gesture of surrender.

"Whoa! Calm down. We are not here to hurt you. We just wanted to tell you that we are really sorry about what happened. The whole thing just got really out of hand and…" he tried to explain.

"I don't want to hear any of it." Valerian interrupted him, hastily collecting her things around the small space and stuffing them inside her bag. When she tried to squeeze through the door past the two boys blocking her path, the other one gripped a hold of her arm.

"Please, can't you at least hear us out? You know we won't leave you aloe before you do." Sirius told her with a funny mixture of pleading and threatening. He kept a firm hold of her arm in order to not let her escape while waiting at her response.

"I'm not interested in anything you could possibly say, so juts leave me alone!" She seethed at him, building as much menace behind her words as she could muster. Knowing that her _sidhe_ ways were most likely too overwhelming for him to bear when she used them in this extend. To her pleasure, Sirius swiftly let go of her arm and stood back, blinking rapidly before composing himself. It was impressive really, how fast he was able to recover.

"You want us to leave you alone?" he interrogated her, his grey eyes burning with sudden intent that confused her.

"Yes, that is exactly what I want!" she wasn't sure what the point of this conversation was anymore. The turn it had taken didn't make any sense to her.

"What if I would promise to give you what you want, but only with one term?" he continued to question her, his expression hard.

"Why would I agree on something as silly as that?" Valerian asked him mockingly, thinking that this whole thing was getting rather silly.

"Because you know how stubborn we can be, we definitely will not leave you alone otherwise." Sirius stated calmly, like this was a fact set in stone. Val pondered this for a moment, chewing her lip while thinking back to the previous week and their stubborn attempts at trying to hex her, and where their obsession had eventually gotten her. At this light, the outcome he painted with his words was not very appealing to her. Repeating what had happened the day before yesterday was not a possibility to her.

"Let's hear it then. What's your condition?" She eventually consented.

"Four months." he simply declared, taking a stand arms crossed like this was the battle of the wills and he was determined not to yield.

"What!" Val shouted exasperated and confused. She couldn't believe that the boy was making fun of her yet again, and she had fallen for it. How stupid could she be?

"Give us four months." Sirius repeated calmly, like her shouting had no effect on him what so ever.

"Four months to earn your forgiveness and prove to you that we are worth your trust." the end of his sentence came out a bit rushed, but other than that, he managed to sound rather convincing. Val, who had recently received a bitter lesson on humans lying and deceiving abilities, was not so easily persuaded however.

"And why would I believe that you are not just planning something nasty again?" she voiced her thoughts, lifting her chin up defiantly even though Sirius was a good deal taller than her, towering over her small frame.

"We will make a pact out of it, that way its binding right? Sense you are a fay and that's how it works with you guys?" funny how he suddenly sounded so unsure, Val thought tilting her head as she weighted out her options.

"So after four months you will leave me alone for good?" She ensured, and after Sirius nodded in response she chewed on her lip some more.

"If we make a pact, there must be something in on it for you too." she stated, looking at him a bit accusingly. Sirius hadn't really thought about this aspect at all, and seemed a bit lost for a moment.

"Well… if we are able to gain your forgiveness and trust, that would mean that we also win your friendship right?" he finally grinned, not wanting to rise the stakes too high so she would be more likely to agree. Wasn't this kind of what they were after in any case? Having friendly relationship with her would mean that they had accomplished what they were set out to do in order to help Dumbledore with the negotiations, right? Valerian frowned at his choice of words, but didn't say anything to deny them either.

"Very well then, Sirius Black. From here on out I will hold you to your words. Remember that they _will_ bind you." She said holding out her hand. Sirius took it without any hesitation and felt a strange magical current creeping up his arm. When she released her hold there was a cold spot on his palm near the base of his thumb. It tingled the same way his skin used to, when cold winter wind bit his cheeks at mid winter quidditch practices. When he turned to look at it, there was a tiny indigo mark etched to his skin. It kind of looked like some kind of a flower, but he couldn't say for sure. It seemed like an ink splotch when you didn't look at it too carefully, but he instinctively knew that the tiny thing was a lot more than just that.

Valerian felt like she had just opened the Pandora's Box of disasters when she watched the reactions she had caused in the boys. They were supporting looks of triumph, amazement and confusion to name a few, and before they were able to recover from the shock of their sudden victory, she quickly took a firmer grip of her back and slipped out of the hospital wing. Nodding to the worried looking Madam Pomfrey in passing before the door clicked shut at her wake.

* * *

><p><em>I am so nice aren't I? :D I was not planning for an update before the end of the next week at the earliest, but didn't really feel like studying to my pedagogy exams ^^'<em>

_I know Val reacts kind of strongly in this chap, but her emotions are a bit on the surface right now. Sirius is a funny boy, he doesn't really mind having a lung cancer but it doesn't mean you guys should smoke too. What do you think about the twist? Good, bad or too predictable? I had planned on it sense the beginning, but had to change it around a bit. What do you think the meaning of the little mark is? Any wild guesses? :D _

_I purposefully left the other Marauders kind of out of this part, sense this was from Val's POV and she didn't really pay them much of attention. Her mind is just a messy bundle of things... hard to write and keep it coherent at the same time. Wow, this must be my longest authors note so far! Sorry about that, if you don't want to hear my nonsense you can just skip these._

_Send me some love! _

_- Kaie _


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

_Where the gap is still too wide for us to cross_

She was sitting in the nearly empty breakfast table at dawn, watching as the students slowly drifted in, still grumbling to herself about what had happened the night before. The nerve of those stupid little humans! How dare they corner her like that. Now she was stuck with the pact she had made and had to wait four months to be completely rid of them. How she wished she would have never had to come here in the first place. It was all because of humans and their stupid wars and their arrogance towards other magical creatures. Like they were the only ones who had the right to live in this land, to have their freedom to have the kind of life they were supposed to, even when it meant ripping it from the backs of others.

When she was little she had never really thought about it too much. She knew of course that humans were the reason why they had to live in the Dark Fields, to live in hiding. Of course she loved her home dearly, but it was still just a mirror image of the reality, its beauty was always fake no matter how breathtaking it was. The frequent visits to the Old Lands for their rituals had always been a source of excitement to her, something she had anticipated for. Now the very thought of the rituals evoked a sickening feeling at the pit of her stomach. Cold sweat spread on her skin and her head started spinning lightly. Her hand that was holding a goblet of summer wine was shaking so much that she had to place her glass back on the table before her.

"Nice to see you up and about." Kia said, sitting down across from her and swiftly loading her plate with various food items. Her hair was as messy as usual, and she seemed to be in a good mood, moving so fast that she was almost just a blur in her eyes. There was a smudge of something blue near her left ear. How she managed to make a mess of herself this early in the morning was left a mystery.

"Ummh." Valerian muttered something affirmative as a response and picked at her food. Her mood was a striking contrast to the girl sitting before her and it didn't go unnoticed either. Kia was much more observant than people gave her credit for. It was true that she had a tendency to miss the obvious stuff that was staring at her straight at her face, but she was good with the smaller stuff, the kind that other people didn't notice. To her, Valerian was usually easy to read, even though to others her facial expression stayed seemingly unchanged no matter what the situation was.

"What is it?" she now asked. Her question came out rather muffled because her mouth was half full of toast and she was practically under the table digging something out of her bag.

"Sirius." Val answered sourly, placing her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands, giving up on breakfast completely after watching the other girls nonexistent table manners.

"He can be a complete brat sometimes. A handsome one, but still a brat." Kia confirmed after returning to the surface holding a stack of different colored square papers. Val watched in fascination as she started folding them, her fingers moving rather skillfully making tiny detailed folds while quickly destroying what was left of her breakfast. It didn't take long for the first colorful butterfly to flap its wings and beginning to flutter around them aimlessly.

"Don't forget that he is also stubborn and arrogant and a total swindler." Valerian added bitterly and caused Kia to glance up at her in surprise.

"Wow, you really must dislike him to use so many words in a row to describe him." she mused. Val just wrinkled her nose at her and grinned a bit. They didn't talk much after that. She watched as Kia folded a couple of more butterflies, a little orange dragon that actually breathed fire and a small purple and lavender colored cat that strutted around the table between them. It was a comfortable silence. The kind that she had not expected to find in this castle when she first arrived here.

"You are going to be late again if you keep that up." a deep voice came behind her rising up the hair at the back of her neck. She turned around slowly, not at all surprised to see Sirius standing there grinning wolfishly at her. James and Remus were both looming around a bit further away, clearly watching the exchange not knowing what kind of outcome to expect.

"It's not like it's any of your business _Sirius._ I am perfectly capable at taking care of my self._" _she answered to him coldly pronouncing his name with distaste she didn't bother trying to hide.

"Aww. Don't be like that. Didn't we agree that you would give us a chance. Four months remember?" he pouted at her. Val just scowled at him and turned her back on him, starting to purposefully collect what was left of her food back to the silver box locking it securely when she was done.

"I'll see you around." she told Kia before picking up her bag and standing up.

"Uh huh." Kia lifted one of her eyebrows at her meaningfully.

"Try not to bite anyone's head off when I am not around. I would hate to miss the show, all that blood and gore. I do like that particular shade of crimson I think. " she told her with a serious expression, like this was a common everyday occurrence to her. It was disturbing how much she sounded like she really meant it. Nodding with grim agreement Val hurried out of the hall.

"Hey! Wait up!" Sirius shouted after her, catching her up before she had reached the marble staircase.

"You are not being very fair Valerian." he frowned at her keeping up with her effortlessly with his long legs. A detail that Val found rather infuriating.

"How so? I am not the one who enjoys tormenting people by shutting them in to confined places full of poison." she refused to look at him or letting her emotions show at her tone. Her words made Sirius falter a bit before grimacing frustratedly.

" I already told you that that was not what we intended, and I'm sorry that we did anything at all in the first place. I am trying to make it up to you if only you would let me. Let us prove to you that we are not as bad as you think we are. If you keep avoiding us you are not giving us a fair chance." he tried to reason with her. By now, they had already traveled half way to their Charms classroom the other two boys dragging somewhere behind them. It seemed that they didn't want to crowd her, thinking that Sirius was their best bet at having their way with her. What ever it was that they really wanted. Val hadn't figured out that part yet and it disturbed her. If she knew their true agenda, dealing with them would be a lot easier. She didn't trust for a second that they really meant it when they talked about forgiveness. Vermin like them didn't really care for such things.

"I have no reason to trust you." She stated, thinking that it would be a good thing to remind him that she was not fooled by them. Sirius sighed deeply, tugging at his hair.

"I know you don't, and that's precisely my point. You already promised us time. The pact binds you as much as it binds me." he said, agitation showing through in his voice. He stopped her by cutting ahead of her and lifted his right hand in front of her face, showing the small mark placed on his palm. The mark. She couldn't deny that it was still there, still binding them and telling her that she could not run away forever. It looked like there was no escaping the matter, and it was only four months in the end. To her such a time was nothing, it would pass before she would have time to even notice. _Yeah, you keep on telling yourself that and maybe then you even start to believing in it, _she told silently to herself.

"You don't have to tell me how it works. I know the rules better than you ever could." she hissed at him, her eyes burning with anger. And Goddess was she angry! There was so many things for her to be angry about that she didn't even know where to start counting. The problem was that she couldn't really take it out on anything, not really. No, she had to _behave_ and be a _good girl_ to make things easier to her father, to all of them. Now was not the time to act out and she knew that, she would have to let out some steam soon though. Maybe a little night flight wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Retreating somewhere deep inside of her, collecting her emotions and shoving them into the darkest corner on her mind she slowly lifted up her hand, palm facing the boy standing before her. Exactly in the same place beside her thumb there was an identical mark of intricate flower design in indigo blue. It was the flower of the nightshade plant. Beautiful but deadly just like their family - it was their family's seal after all. Her mother had been a part of the Alhena clan and maybe that was the reason she had died. Vidar had once told her that he thought it was stupid how some of the families didn't want their blood to be mixed. Alhena clan was one of the old ones that still were completely _seelie_, even when most of the clans within the three Night Courts were already mixed. That was the reason why they had survived this long, they kept themselves strong. _Nothing like the daylight wimps_.

Sirius watched her hand in amazement for a moment, not really sure about what he was supposed to think about what he was seeing.

"I know the rules better than you." Val repeated softly but firmly at him. He was silent for a while and then his rigid posture relaxed, like he had finally accepted something he had been reluctant to face.

"You are not going to make this easy on us are you." he stated defeatedly, watching somewhere over her shoulder not meeting her eyes anymore.

"No." she said simply, before stepping around him and arriving to the classroom just barely making it on time. The boys would get in to trouble for being late, she thought with a pleased smile that did not reach her eyes.

* * *

><p>This was kind of an in between chapter. Not very long either but think of it as a bonus or something ^^ Just felt like writing a bit about what Val is thinking right now. I think Sirius is being really nice and patient here, even thought he thinks he is doing it just in order to fight Voldemort and all that ^^ Well he was a total dickhead to her before so some major sucking up is in order don't you think?<p> 


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

_Where time stands still_

Remus stayed behind with the other two, watching silently at the exchange taking place. It didn't look like it was going well, but it was not like their hopes were all that high anyway. When Val turned and marched in to the classroom leaving Sirius behind, they didn't know what to make of his expression.

"What did she say?" Remus asked, not really sure if he even wanted to know the answer. It probably just meant more trouble when he already had more than he felt he could deal with right now.

"I should have been more specific with the terms when I made the deal with her." Sirius admitted looking rather embarrassed.

"What do you mean?" James asked reluctantly.

"I mean, that now we have four months to suck up to her before we really have to leave her alone, but that doesn't mean she has to do anything to make it easier to us. Basically that means she doesn't have to spend any time with us or anything like that if she doesn't want to. She can't completely avoid us or ignore us either, but she wont make this easy on us." He explained with a dark look on his face. It would be easier to just turn back time and make it like nothing ever happened, but unfortunately that was not an option.

"I guess eventually there had to be a time when our pranks would come back to bite us in the ass." Remus muttered earning a few bewildered looks from his friends. He was too tired to care about their opinions right now, too tired to care about proper language either so he just started towards the classroom and tried to slip in quietly to avoid detention – yet another thing he was too tired for.

-XXX-

It was late in the afternoon and for most of the few students in the classroom this would be their last class of the day. The sky behind the big windows was starting to get dark and didn't provide much of natural light to the canvas Val was working on. To her it was not a problem but Kia was squinting her eyes while spreading more of the same shade of blue that had decorated her left ear for the whole day. Every now and then she would shoot Val with one of those piercing green looks that felt like she was trying to drill holes in to your soul and hoping all your secrets would just spill out of the holes.

"What are you painting?" Valerian eventually asked, more in order to get her to stop staring than because she was actually curious.

"Oh this? I'm trying to make something for my grandma. It's about these family traditions of ours that are really important to her. " Kia took few steps back and tilted her head, scrutinizing her work with a dissatisfied expression.

"I just can't get it to look right." she let out a frustrated puff while Val rounded their easels and came to stand next to her. Kia's painting was a rather large swirl of intense shades of red, blue and yellow. Few strange symbols and curious shapes were scattered around the canvas in a seemingly nonexistent order. Other Kia's paintings Val had seen were nothing like this one, and to be quite honest she wasn't really able to understand this one at all.

"Intriguing." was all she could say for that at least was true.

"Yeah I know it is hard to get." Kia sniffed and started collecting her things in to a big wooden box full of different colored paint smudges covering its surface. "It's a cultural thing I guess, but I know mom and grandma will like it" she explained. The box snapped shut and Kia turned to look at her expectantly.

"I'm sure they will." Val told her and that too was true. Kia just had to hear it every once in a while.

"It will be a Christmas present." she was smiling again and picking up speed "I love it when I get back home for winter holidays. It's so different than here... we have so much snow and everything is so pretty..." Kia continued her rant while Valerian collected her few belongings and started towards the door. Their teacher nodded them good bye and they started the journey towards their dorms.

"Are you going home for Christmas?" Kia eventually asked with a peculiar look, like what she was asking wasn't really what she was asking, and what she was really asking was something else entirely.

"It's not really up to me." was Val's detached reply that made the other girl frown at her.

"What is it like? Your home I mean?" was the next question in line. Now it was Val's turn to frown.

"Big?" was all she could come up with, and even that came out as a question.

"Oh yeah. With your dads profession you guys must be pretty rich right?" It wasn't really offensive, not with the way she said it, like it was just common sense. Like having an apple tree made a lot of apples.

"Somewhat." Val shrugged and stopped at their common-room door.

_A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with wands ready, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?_ Asked the raven head.

"Is it just me, or have the riddles become more and more morbid?" Kia asked with a bewildered expression, not really even bothering to try and solve the riddle anymore.

"If you don't feed lions for three years they are already dead, so the third one." Val answered to the door that grudgingly swung open and let them in. They walked between small tables with groups of studying ravenclaws and found their way to their now usual spot partially behind a large armor and out of sight.

" How do you always solve them so fast? " Kia wanted to know, while she dug through her bag for something.

"I once had a teacher like that." Val explained, thinking about Kayn who had been stuck inside her room again for the whole day.

"Were you home schooled?" her voice was muffled by all the stuff Kia carried around with her.

"In a way."

"Found it!" Kia declared and pulled out one of her textbooks with a victorious smile plastered on her smug face.

"What did the boys want?" she asked while searching for the right page.

"To make amends they say." Val was picking at a loose thread on her sleeve, mind already elsewhere making plans for taking Kayn out for a walk once everyone else had gone to sleep.

"What did you say to them? They all must have their heads still intact. If they hadn't I would have heard." she practically purred and her flood of questions seemed never ending.

"I think I made my point clear enough." Val mused while standing up.

"I have something to do so I'll see you later." She told to her almost-friend and walked up the stairs to her room before Kia had time to answer.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

_where solitude seems crowded_

"Hello beautiful." Valerian cooed to the big cat that came to greet her at the door, purring and pushing her large head against her.

"Wait a bit and I will give you a good scratching once I have changed." She told Kayn and tried to get past the lynx to put her books and things away. When this was done she sighed at last and let her human form slip away. Spreading her wings and stretching her spine, letting out a meowing sound that Kayn always found amusing.

"Come here girl, lets sit at the window." She told it and curled to her favorite spot at the window still, now made comfortable by a blanket and a couple of old and weary pillows. The lynx didn't have to be told twice and it hurriedly climbed next to her. Relaxing against her legs while the skillful little fay fingers found all her favorite scratching spots.

"You know what?" Val said over the loud purring her friend was now making.

"I think Kia isn't half that bad... for a human at least." She told the cat, who opened one of her ice blue eyes to look at her evaluatively.

"She smells different too. Not like the others but wilder somehow. Like her magic is more primitive than the others for some reason." Valerian continued, wondering what this little discovery might mean.

They stayed like that for the rest of the evening. Waiting for the castle to quiet down and fall asleep for the night, before they carefully made their way through the silent corridors and out into the night.

-XXX-

"Kayn don't go so close to the woods, the trees make me nervous." Val's voice trembled a bit and she shifted her weight from foot to foot. Anxious to get away from the edge of the Forbidden Forest that loomed dangerously close for her liking.

"Let's go to the lake, I like to look at the stars there. They are different than the ones we have at home." she said and after few steps in the wet grass she was airborne again, hovering close to the ground towards the lake beside the castle. The big white beast followed after her, carefully choosing where to place her paws in the wet ground. Looking up every now an then to make sure that Val didn't get too far away, probably hoping that she too could fly and avoid getting her feet muddy and cold.

The lake surface was smooth and black, mirroring the night sky above and the castle towering over it. Water was freezing cold when Val dipped her toes hovering just above the surface. Cold was good. Cold woke her up like nothing else had. The only problem was, that cold was also wet, and wet was not good. Wet was unpleasant memories and pain.

She flew back to the shore and sat down under one of the old threes there. The branches were bare against the sky like black lace made out of crooked spider legs. Kayn took the opportunity to explore around a bit, always making sure not to wander too far from her mistress and charge.

-XXX-

Remus was staring at the curtains of his bed, thinking about all the nights over the past years, when he had been lying like that; quietly listening to the muffled and sleepy sounds his friends were making in their dreams. Wondering how many other students who came before him, had stared at the same fabric that he was now staring. He was tired. He had been tired for some time now, and felt like soon he would forget how it felt _not _to be tired. His days went by in a haze and studying was practically impossible when he was unable to focus even to the simplest things. He needed to find an answer, and one answer would be simply to sleep – if it weren't for the dreams. He was afraid what he might see the next time he closed his eyes.

First, the dreams were not so bad. Weird maybe, but it took some time for him to figure out that they weren't just ordinary dreams. There were places he had never been and places that were so strange and so foreign he just knew his mind couldn't come up with anything like that. Then the nightmares began. Dark woods were full of black figures closing in. There was lot of shouting and sinister laughter, a lot of fear and pain that were not his own even when he could clearly feel them like they were. He could hear footsteps, and other noises, smell dust and death and things he couldn't name. There were also other things, things he couldn't really even begin to understand and somehow he knew he didn't even want to.

It was better to stay awake than see those things again, he thought. Maybe that way, when the full moon came he would be exhausted enough to simply sleep trough the full ordeal. The idea made him let out a bitter chuckle that sounded strange even to his own ears. His eyelids felt heavy and he knew he would have to do something else if he wanted to stay awake. A particularly strong gust of wind howled behind the window and gave him an idea. What would be a better place to keep him grounded than the cold and wet castle grounds where the wind would blow away traces of sleep that tried to pull him under?

He crept carefully out of his bed and began to search through the messy room for James' cloak and their map in order to get out of the castle without getting caught. After a while of digging around he finally found them and slipped out of the common room. Outside the weather was just as uncomfortable that he had hoped. The wind was howling and tugging at his clothes and the cape hungrily. Air was cold and wet and suddenly he was a lot more awake and alert. In the dark, the familiar shapes of greenhouses and trees were just black shadows against the sky and he was so gloriously alone in the middle of all this restless blackness. The forest would be too dangerous for him to explore in his current state so he opted to just wander aimlessly around, trying not to think anything at all. '

He spotted two white figures by the lake a lot sooner than they were even able to notice him even without his cloak. His first thought was that few of the ghosts from the castle had decided to take a stroll on the grounds too, but when he got a bit closer the figures started to look too solid for a ghost. He couldn't think pf anything from the forest that would look like that either. Besides, things from the Forbidden Forest weren't allowed here anyway, so he gave in to his curiosity, pulled the cloak tighter around himself and sneaked closer.

-XXX-

" Did you hear something." Val suddenly asked, sniffing the air suspiciously. There was a faint trace of something only vaguely familiar in the air, but that could have been anything. Kayn came to sit beside her, pressing against her side and letting out a low growl. Her nose was sniffing the air too, ears and eyes searching the night around them for something that might be a threat of some kind. Small delicate fingers found their place amongst her white fur, as much to calm as to seek comfort.

"It might be just my imagination." she added shakily after a while when nothing had happened.

"you know how jumpy I have been, after..." she swallowed the rest of her sentence and looked around with wide eyes, seeking comfort from the warm presence next to her.

"Maybe we should go back inside.." she finally admitted and proceeded to stand up from the dry patch of grass she had managed to find under particularly big tree. Val had just started to walk towards the castle when she noticed something. _That definitely was not my imagination. _She thought and squinted her eyes trying to see better.. There it was again, a flash of a fabric of some kind and maybe a shoe too in the grass small distance away from them. She didn't even have the time to think what to make of it when a very disheveled looking Remus appeared before her seemingly out of thin air.

For a long moment, they just stood there, staring at each other.


End file.
